Design elements can draw customers in – or frighten them off.
Last time I confessed that I still don’t have a business Web site, but I vowed to put one up very soon, and offered some ideas on creating professional, pleasing content. Here, I’ll discuss Web site design for home-based businesses.
I’m not utterly without experience in this area; last year, some friends and I decided to turn our hobby into a business, and created a Web site for our small company that builds, sells and rents race cars. Along the way, we learned a few lessons about Web design that I’ll try to remember as I create my own professional writer’s site.
First, since I’m a word guy, and out of respect to designers, I’ll stick to explaining why some things appeal to me and others don’t.
Freshen things up regularly. Changeless home pages are dull and discourage repeat visits. Why not incorporate a News or Update box into your main page to entice people to return? You can use this area to brag about new customers or completed projects; you might even start a Web log.
At my racing business, we have a Latest News box on the home page; traffic statistics show that a lot of people check us out every Monday to see if we’ve posted a race report. Only a small percentage will ever buy or rent a race car – but when they’re ready, they’ll come to us.
Shell out for a designer. It’s painful for a cheapskate like me to say this, but cheap design looks cheap. Web hosting outfits like Verio and Network Solutions offer hundreds of templates for small businesses. But Web sites built around templates always look as generic as the designs are.
Instead, consider a small, local Web design outfit. Many charge reasonable fees. For the racing business, we paid about $1,200 for a unique Web site and logo, as well as well as plenty of training. Money well spent.
Limit your fonts. Remember when the Macintosh was introduced, everybody’s party invitation suddenly included 25 different typefaces in 35 colors? Too many home-based businesses fall into this trap. Pick out one serif font (such as Times New Roman) and one sans-serif (such as Arial). Most experts believe sans-serif is easier to read on a computer monitor, which explains why giants like Microsoft, Cisco and Amazon.com are content with one such font (in different colors, sizes and weights) on their home pages. If Microsoft can get by with a single typeface, can’t you?
Limit your column widths. Consultants are paid piles of money to determine the optimal width of columns in magazines, newspapers and Web sites; graduate students write dissertations on the topic. But you needn’t be an expert to see that text marching all the way across the screen is annoying, difficult to follow and amateurish. Web sites belonging to magazines and newspapers seem to have settled on a width of 5 to 6 inches. Once I noticed that, I thought about some Web sites that I read regularly but find bothersome. I broke out the ruler, and sure enough, they use column widths of 6.5 or 7 inches. I suggest a 5-inch column width.
Now I want to read your likes and dislikes. I’ve already received some thoughtful responses to part 1, and I plan to follow up in the near future.
