Promote Your Business with Customer Oriented Website Design…
Today the Internet is the HOME of over 100 million websites; which translates into serious competition for anyone doing business online. Every business owner wants to know how they can succeed in this competitive challenge; some business owners are still taking the approach of talking about their product or service and its features when they should be considering the benefits the visitor will receive by purchasing what they have to offer.
When you write a business plan do you write it based on you alone as the buyer of the product or service? Of course not – business plans are written to address the market need of consumers. A website should be structured and designed in the same manner; give your website visitors what they want and you will make more sales. Too often websites are designed from an aesthetic point of view only; visually they are stunning and that's wonderful – if the information the visitor has come to find is included. Online business owners must stay focused on providing the customer the experience they desire when they visit their website: remember Internet shoppers can always go to your competitor's website.
Using different techniques such as rollover menus can add a revised edge to your website but the more complicated the technique you harder have to work to enable the search engines to be able to index your site properly. All of this is related to website visitor usability; there are several market research companies on Internet user activity that has surveyed website visitors to find out what it is they're looking for when they visit websites. The consensus remains the same; a website that provides them with the information they need in a format that is easy to use. Does that mean that your website design has to be boring? Boring no, functional yes; The "skin" you put on your website in terms of the visual appeal can be done in a way that is compatible with the search engine robots and Internet technology.
The information that is provided by online business owners is critical to website visitor traffic; no matter how functional your website design may be if the only information you include about your product or service is its features, price and availability you may fail to generate a high volume of traffic and your search engine ranking will decline.
The bottom line for customer oriented website design is to know your market; the product or service that you offering appeals to a certain group of people you need to know who they are and what they like so that you can design your website around these factors. For instance if your website business sells toys to young children you need to answer the question: what benefits will the toy provide to the child? Some toys help children to learn skills, others are more oriented to physical development. By understanding the purpose of your product you can identify the value to your website visitors.
Information-wise you can also provide related tips, articles, industry developments that will help give your website visitors a well rounded perspective on what they are purchasing and your company. Every business exists for the customer – without the customer your business will not exist. So it makes sense to direct all of your efforts to giving the customer a full spectrum of information that provides value and helps them to make an informed purchase decision. Not only will this approach to website design generate sales it will also generate referrals or "word of mouth" advertising as your site becomes known as an "authority" on your product or service.