It's the Content, Stupid!

Website design and development has come a long way since the early days of the Mozaic browser. There are various points of view on what works the best but the truth is it still boils down to content. Whether its the beautiful layout and graphics, all the java bells and whistles, or text rich information; all those things make up the content. Graphics, scripts, and text must work together to present your ideas, products, or information. 

Before you even think about designing your site you should already know what it is you are going to sell, promote, recommend, or say on your webpage. If its an informational site then mostly text, possibly some video and smart use of graphic is all you need. For the estore more graphics is quite appropriate but you still need text for the spiders to crawl.

This article is not about SEO or how to create content but more about how to get all that content out to the masses as quickly as possible and with the least amount of work. There are basically three options for creating your web presence all of which have pros and cons:

DIY or Build your own website. There are dozens of commercial and open source software packages that can construct your website. If your site is small and simple, even an internet novice can create a functional webpage. The pros are low cost and complete control over your website. The cons - unless you are a web designer or techno nerd its a lot of work to construct and maintain.

Web Builders or Content Management Systems (CMS) - If you plan on having multiple sites, products, campaigns, etc your websites can quckly get out of control. Larger sites (>50 pages) are close to impossible to keep up with changes unless they are totally static. Static is not a good thing, you will need to keep your content fresh and up to date. There are tons of services and training resources out there that can provide a CMS or web builder that comes with templates that helps keep your site consistent across pages. They also include a menu builder and built in CSS or style sheets that keep your fonts and formatting consistent. Basically you just dump your content in and it does the rest. Some cons -  $Cost$ commercial solutions can run $40+ per month plus whatever you pay for merchant account. Of course if you are making lots of cash, this is a trivial amount. For those that still want to save the money, check out the University of Biz's Library for Open Source CMS's that cost nothing.

Hire a Pro! Professional Web designers - obviously the easiest of the three but can be expensive. Not to say there is zero work involved, you still must communicate your ideas, wants and instructions.When you first start out consider spending the money to get a professionally designed set of templates that you can also plug your content into. You can also use the Pro to help you come up with your "corporate identity" complete with logo design and recommendations for marketing strategies. If you value your time and obviously if you are making enough money you definitely want to consider using professionals. The Cons - the expense and that there is no guarantee the concept they come up with will work.

Regardless whether you decide to spend the bucks and get a pro to build you something, you will still need to provide the *stuff* that will go on your site. You should have already done your keyword and market research before you even get to this point and have developed the basic information and products that will comprise your content. Some other questions you need to ask? answered:

• How am I going to promote the site?
• How are your visitors move around your page(navigation/menus)?
• How much money you are (or can) willing to spend for the startup and subscription costs.
• What are my benchmarks that measure levels of success?

Front/Home Page - Whether its the first of many, a product briefs, squeeze page or whatever, the first thing the users sees goes a long way in determining how long that persons stays.

1. Does it answer their question, want or need? 
2. Does the page present a well organized way to get more information?
3. Is it visually interesting without going overboard with flashing, blinking and dynamic images?
4. Does it load quickly?
5. Does it look professional?

Number  2 - 5 are irrelevant if you don't answer #1. You have about 3 - 5 seconds to grab and hold there attention. If you don't address their questions, needs, and wants they will be gone in a click. If the do SO WHAT? Its no big deal. If you page has the right content relative to the question, want, desire that you planned with your product research, you will get plenty more that will stay. If you will work on answering those 5 questions over and over you will continue to improve the content of your website. 

The rest of you pages should also follow these general guidelines but geared to it's specific keywords. A consistent look and feel will give your visitors a feel of continuity and cohesiveness that can even span unsimilar product lines. Remember to give them plenty to look at but don't try to dump it all on one page. Internal links don't hurt you but allows them to dig deeper with related links to pages that don't necessarily need to be SEO'd. There are plenty of free articles out there (like this one) that can provide you with content for your site. 

Finally don't be afraid to experiment but keep an eye on your visits after changing things to see if it helps or hurts. Everyone has to start somewhere, it can only improve from there.