5 Tips For Better Business Web Design

There is a world of difference between building a website for a business and building a website for personal use. Each can be optimized to address the specific needs of the user and must be designed accordingly.

Web design involves collaboration between multiple parties. Depending on the size and scope of a web design project it can involve a graphic designer, programmer, marketing professional, sales manager, project manager, business executive, audio & video professional, writers, search engine optimization and marketing professional, support staff, and finally a web designer to pull it all together.

With so many people getting involved there is bound to be conflict. Sales and marketing staff will need to place material on the website designed to drive sales. programmers will need to work within the framework to put together website functionality, support staff will need information and resources to enable them to assist customers, writers will need to write compelling and interesting content, optimization specialists will need to "optimize" that content to help drive traffic and so on.

Because so much is going on with regard to the website and what each contributor needs implemented it is often easy to forget the main reason the website is being created. For all intents and purposes a business website is a liason between customers and clients. It is a device to enable communication between the business and the customer.

When building a business website it is important to put the customer first. The most effective websites are the ones that are designed for the customer, not the business. Businesses should create separate websites into two major parts, one for the business and the other mainly for the customer.

Better Web Design Tips

1. Create your business website as a reference for your customers. Provide information about your products and services and avoid sales gimmicks. This will enable you to build a relationship of trust and customer begin to value your website as a resource. This will in effect help them to feel more comfortable and confident in doing business with you.

2. Each page should have one single focal point. Avoid distracting visitors with flashing images, music, sound effects and pop up advertisements. These have proven to be annoying to users and can cause them to avoid your website all together.

3. Keep consistency within the website. Make it easy for users to find links to the main areas of your website. Header links with drop down menus work best. Avoid using flash for your navigation menu, this will make it difficult to update links and is also less effective when it comes to search engine optimization.

4. Test your website. Before going live have employees, friends and family use the website and offer feedback. Often times it is users that know nothing about your business that can offer the most value in regards to how effective your website is.

5. Be ready to make changes. No matter how much time and thought is put into your business website, you must be willing to accept that it is ultimately your users that will determine how your website should be put together and function. If you fail to accept this then you are essentially just building a website for yourself, and that is not very useful or effective for your business.

For best results plan and design your business website on paper first. Often web designers and project managers will make realizations well into the design of a project and need to make modifications on the fly. This can result in delay and added work. Planning is essential to efficient web design.