adapted from the Business Daily - 19th July 2010
By RAWLINGS OTINI
Posted Monday, July 19 2010 at 00:00
In a world where businesses are adopting quickly to information technology, websites have become the universal compass — pointing people to data that suits their specific needs in a sea of information.
However, not all websites are worthy revisiting.
What makes the difference between an attractive site and one the puts off surfers?
According to Denis Karema of Authentic Global, a Kenyan web design company, the name of a website must match the industry of the company (host).
It should be short and easy to remember.
This ensures that the visitors refer the site to other prospective visitors easily.
This also means that the client’s needs have been met and the website is easier to use, hence repeat visits.
This also enables search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and Binge — among others — to easily pick up the site during a search.
The quality of a good website is determined by the number of repeat visits and referrals it gets.
“Google ranks pages according to the frequency of visits they get and uses this to prioritise which page comes first during a search,” Larry Page, co-founder of Google told CNBC recently.
The website must be able to load even if the user has low broadband.
“When a website takes too long to load because it has multimedia applications which generally take long to load, sometimes the programmer or designer is not keen on optimising the images in order to make them light enough to load for visitors with low bandwidth,” says Isaac Gatembo of 9Lives Innovations Ltd.
Most websites are rarely updated, ending up displaying information that is outdated.
Such sites tend to turn away visitors since they have nothing new to offer.
A site that was updated several months ago shows that either the host is no longer active or has closed shop in the area specified on the site.
An updated site gives visitors the impression that they are likely to get feedback if they asked questions, hence chances of interaction with the host are high.
A good website must be audience specific, which means it must clearly target its market and should not be vague. This helps readers save time.
“It must meet the needs of the host and those of the reader,” says Mr Gatembo.
The appearance of the site and its design must match the clientele the host seeks to attract.
It doesn’t take too much effort, time, and money to come up with a reasonable looking site, yet there are very many out there that are in desperate need for a facelift.
The most relevant information must be available at first glance.
This includes a one page CV since readers have access to loads of information and the faster they get what they need the better.
Too much information slows down the speed of navigating around the site hence distracts visitors.
“Broken links or links that don’t lead one to what they are looking for turns me off,” says John Kithaka, a regular internet surfer.
Websites that have no physical and telephone contacts give the reader a bad impression.
However, this is acceptable in rare cases where the occupation of the host does not necessarily need physical location.
Clicking the “contact us” button only to receive a form asking for one’s details instead of the contact of the host turns off many.
Unless it is a binding agreement, any forms on the web meant to collect information from the user must be brief.
“Us surfers are very impatient,” says Mr Kithaka.
Dull colours might also turn off people since most internet users are young people.
Too much information scares away visitors, hence simple and brief content is the way to go.
A website should be interactive, with room for people to air their feelings concerning the host’s services.
This helps the host to improve his product offering.
You should work with designers who understand both sales and graphic design because the site must appear professional but simple and easy to navigate.
People are not likely to revisit pages with statements like “site still under construction”, “content not currently available” since there are many alternative sites.
Business website
A business website should not have flashy and contrasting colours unless it is in the fashion design or other art related industry.
“Websites with excessive advertisement pop ups are likely to distract surfers, hence one needs to restrict advertisements or put a link to an advert so that if one wants to see the advert they have to click that link,” explains Mr Karema.
For sites meant strictly for official purposes, a pop up may look odd.
However, the advent of Facebook is shaking traditional marketing strategies, transforming the website from a social networking platform to a business and political arena.
Many entrepreneurs have rushed to showcase their products on Facebook, while organisations including churches and event organisers are turning to the forum to advertise.
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