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Before you can build a great web site, you need to
decide exactly what you want it to do. Is your site
being created to: |
- Disseminate information?
- Improve
customer service?
- Provide demonstration software
distribution?
- Be your retail storefront?
- Polish or define your corporate
image?
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Picking those goals, and setting their relative
priorities, is your first step. Here are some ways you
can use the Web to make life easier for you and your
customers :
Digital Information Library
Overwhelmed trying to get information into the right
hands in an efficient manner? On- line digital libraries
and product catalogues can cut down on customer call
traffic, internal fact- finding time, and the waste of
having to constantly change update- intensive materials.
If your site is large, include a site index or an on-
site search engine to speed up navigation through your
site and minimise customer frustration.
24 -Hour Virtual Employee
Think of your web site as an automated operator. This
"virtual employee" can reduce the load on customer
service representatives by taking over repetitive tasks
such as answering your most frequently asked questions,
gathering information, and automatically sending out
responses. Your web site also works around the clock, so
people from other time zones and countries will be able
to work around their schedules, not yours .
Instant Research
Use the Web to capture key research nuggets about your
market - and automatically compile a running tally of
the results. Whether your customers are raving or
complaining, you'll have it verbatim. Instantly. within
weeks, a nagging grey area could become crystal clear,
without costing you a lot of time and resources. You can
track traffic through your site, too, and find out what
your visitors are really interested in.
The Cyber -Storefront
If you have a mail order business or a retail business
and you want to expand your sales without having to pay
for printing extra catalogues and the postage involved,
then you can use your web site as your cyber -
storefront. Hosting and shopping cart plans allow for
you to take orders on- line through a secure connection
between your customer's Web browser and your web site.
This "Secure Socket Layer" (S S L) connection gets your
customer's order to you without the risk of fraud. Using
tested shopping cart technologies, you can set up an
easy- to-use Internet store and even get real- time
credit card authorisation.
VERY IMPORTANT :
Know what you want to achieve with your web site, who
you want to reach and what you want to provide them.
This will help you set your financial goals, if any, at
a reasonable level.
Even if your goals are not financial, e.g. you want to
distribute information to your offline customer s, you
still have to be clear in what you want to achieve. If
nobody uses your service you are wasting your time and
money. Once you put up the web site you have made a
commitment to these customer s, and the time it may take
to maintain the web site must be worth it.
DESIGNING YOUR SITE
Good design will simplify complicated concepts. This
especially applies to the Web. When designing a site,
think in three levels - function (content), presentation
(graphics ), and navigation (flow). First, keep in mind
that some of the visitors to your site may have a faster
connection than others. Your site should accommodate all
users by limiting your file/page sizes so that users
with slower modems can view them quickly. One of the
major mistakes many newbie, and even more “experienced”
designers make is to design fancy sites with all the
bells and whistles available on the Internet. DON’T DO I
T ! No matter what the purpose of your web site is, your
visitors will NOT come again if they have problems
getting into the web site.
Designate one person to be responsible for over seeing
the site's content, and give them the power to edit
incoming content so that it's optimised for the
electronic medium. Your site will be more coherent and
your message will be stronger.
Make no mistake, a web site takes work. We will talk
more about this in the next newsletter on maintaining
your web site.
Ask your self how critical the graphic presentation is.
Depending upon your business, it may not make a
difference. Unless you're in an image industry or want
to develop your corporate image, home page aesthetics
are less critical in site design than most people think.
People read text, and equally important search engines
read text.
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Our Services. EPNET Web design:
Internet consultancy
Website design & development
Flash design
Website search engine marketing
Search engine optimisation
Internet research
Website hosting
Domain name registration
Email services
Web design quotes
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Web design South Africa, Web Design Johannesburg, web design Sandton - African web design company
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