Free Website, Printing and Graphic Design Tips

Whether you’re just sitting down to begin designing your website or if you already have a website, you may want to include the following information in your site.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s): Adding a “Frequently Asked Questions” page to your website enhances both user-friendliness and search-engine friendliness. Visitors go to this page looking for quick answers to common questions regarding your services.

“Make it Sticky”: A “Sticky” website keeps its visitors coming back by providing information they want. You site should be informative and interactive. Downloadable documents are a very effective way to inform, engage and boost search engine results. These documents could include service or product related “How-To” and Resource Information, Coupons, Gift Certificates, product instructions, etc.

Links: Help your visitors by providing links to service or product related informational sites. These links will add to your site’s interactivity and will enhance your search engine placement. You could use links to industry associations, organizations, and anything else you think your visitors may be interested in. Please be sure to include only those sites which are relevant to yours! Too many links or links to unrelated sites may result in lower search engine rankings.

Add A Guarantee: A guarantee is a great way to increase consumer confidence. Visitors will choose to do business with a company that provides a guarantee over a company which does not offer one.

Customer Testimonials: Be sure to collect and save positive feedback from your previous customers! Providing potential clients with positive feedback from existing clients is another great way to help build confidence in your company and its services.

Terms and Conditions: Your company’s terms and conditions of sale should be included on your website.

Contact Form: Forms allow you to request specific information from your visitors. This method helps to ensure that you obtain the type of contact information you want, the visitor’s email address and any other information you may need. This information can be returned to you in an email.

Although there are hundreds of items you can select to include inyour website, the above mentioned ones are among my favorites. They are simple, yet effective tools in creating a successful website.

When designing for virtually any medium, it’s important to consider all the details.

Web design is much more than impressive text and imagery. You’ve got to keep the design functional as well as visually appealing. For instance, when you create an online form be sure to return a thank you page after the submit button is selected. On the thank you page include any additional information a visitor may need. How to contact you, how to check their order status and an idea of what to expect next. These small details go a long way in making a site visit pleasant and professional. Provide your contact information, or at least an option to email you, on every web page in your site. Remember google ranks pages not entire websites. If a potential client visits a page from your site without some way of contacting you they may not want to go to another page to do it. Make it easy. Make it simple. Immediate gratification is often the difference between a sale and a lost deal.

If you have a website please reply to emails using an email from your domain. If your website is greattoys.com then reply to all your inquiries with an email that ends in “@greattoys.com”. For instance, customerservice@greattoys.com or salesgreattoys.com. This is the most professional manner of handling email replies. Using an email address like “greattoys@yahoo.com” is not professional and isn’t going to inspire confidence in the size and validity of your company. A number of email addresses should already be included in your hosting plan. Contact your hosting service and find out how to use them. This is another small, but so very important, detail that you shouldn’t overlook.

The details are just as important in graphic design and printing projects. Create a design that fits the market you’re reaching out to. Be aware that design choices have a direct impact on how a client may view your company and/or its products and services. Use your logo, web address, and contact number whenever possible on printed materials, especially when purchasing promotional items (also known as “give-aways”). Quite often when you order promotional items the manufacturer asks for the information you would like imprinted and your logo. Find out who is preparing the art and whether or not they will be maximizing your exposure by utilizing the entire print area and if you are getting custom design. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen pens designed with nothing more than simple lettering, magnetic calendars, etc. where nothing about the company stands out. The print is “run of the mill” and there isn’t any design detail. Get your supplier to use your logo and make it recognizable! It can be done. You’re paying for a product which will represent your company as it travels from person to person or sits on someone’s desk. The idea is to do it right and get it recognized. Average layout and type do not attract the human eye. If your supplier doesn’t want to customize your printable space…get someone else.

Think about your projects from a client’s point of view. Consider that site visitors or people reading your brochure do not know your business as well as you. What are the questions they may have? What will set your company apart from all the others? What market are you trying to reach and is your design appropriate for that market. Maybe your design should appeal to multiple markets thus getting you more value from the product or website. In short, try to create an experience that educates potential clients, is easy to follow and stays with them.