Here are some quick, if not obvious (to me) strategies to help improve the quality and effectiveness of your website. I just browsed several photog websites, so please bear with me while I think out loud. Feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts.
- Instead of Googling for “10 tips on Landing Page design,” pay 10 people $20 for an honest critique and to create some lists for you to maximize the effectiveness from your feedback system.
- Do NOT show a .wav, .mov or .fla movie, especially if it’s larger than 200px or if it wasn’t professionally edited. Not everyone’s browser/Internet speed is optimized for videos.
- Avoid showing a “Click here for HTML” and “Click here for Flash” links. You should know your target audience well enough to make an informed decision about how they use the Internet and their preference for HTML/Flash. The medium (html or Flash) should reflect the sophistication/style of your own work, once you make a decision about which way to go, accept no apologies.
- Offer a simple navigation with clean lines. Make use of drop downs or fly outs where it makes sense to keep the user interface uncluttered, not as a way to show off your Flash or JavaScript skills.
- Make it clear what you want me to do and provide a navigation that makes it easy to accomplish those goals. E.g. 1.) View Portfolio, 2.) View Weddings 3.) View Testimonials 4.) View Schedule 5.) Contact me for appointment.
- Try variations using Google Website Optimizer. (See previous blog entry) This is a perfect way to test the effectiveness of multiple landing pages and check which messages make the most sense to your website visitors.
- Your blog is important, and fun, but don’t forget that you need to leverage your website to make a clear, concise and compelling call to action. (Others might call this creating “Emotional Selling Points” or ESPs.) Blogs are often too unstructured and confusing for this. So let your website do the heavy lifting and then relax and have fun with your blog.
