One of the big myths that won’t go away, is the continuous push to convince those pursuing making a living online that they must have a site that is full of all these cool bells and whistles and looking like something right out of
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The truth is that it is being promoted by those whose business is making these types of sites. Their higher end products are the various graphics, animations, interactivity, audio and more. This is their motivation. While in a very narrow market that deals with these as necessary for a business, this would be fine. But in reality, for most businesses, it can really hurt them.
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In a recent post I mentioned that rich media, like that just mentioned, will provide great opportunities for marketing this year; as it really increases hits when applied to advertising banners on websites.
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But that’s not what I’m talking about here. It is the overall design of the site itself that will suffer greatly from too much activity or interactivity. That along with abuse of Flash and other graphical tools makes the site load extremely slow.
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People looking for information or prices do not want to have to wait very long to get a look at it. Studies prove that they go before anything that you have to offer them is able to be shown.
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The very same reason that rich media is going to be a growing profit-maker for online business, is the same reason that these types of web designs don’t work for others.
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The approximate 33% of households that have broadband (and its growing every day) make the use of rich media great for targeted ads. But that same figure makes it horrible for overall web design.
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That means that about two thirds of U.S households don’t have broadband. That tells us that they will not tolerate the bells and whistles, at the expense of ease-of-use and functionality and speed.
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So if you are just starting to look at going into business online, make sure that if you hire a designer or develop the site itself that your pages load quickly and efficiently.
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If are already online with what seems like a great product and service, and your statistics show a lot of visits that end very quickly, look at your web design closely to see if that is the reason that your business isn’t growing.
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What is the way to go then? This doesn’t mean that you have a terrible looking site, but rather that you have a balance between design and function that looks good, but is very consumer friendly. I know of a financial website that is so simple, that you probably wouldn’t believe that it goes great business yet it thrives! So make sure that you resist the temptation to impress and instead think of how the site is set up will serve your customer best.
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This should be one of your top priorities if you want to be successful online.
» Put Your Web Design under a Microscope from TheAlphaMarketer
I remember the late Corey Rudl would always try to convince those looking to him for advice to not include all the things on a site that you think would attract customers. Let's go over this subject of web... [Read More]
Tracked on: February 11, 2006 4:19 PM | Permalink to Trackback