The internet has undergone tremendous change since it was first made available to the mainstream population.  Not only has the technology morphed and grown into an endless array of possibilities, but the standards for design and usability have matured as well.  Gone are the days of spinning icons, animated gif’s, and single pages that scroll forever.  The internet has come a long way.  It is now a feature-rich medium that serves to extend your organization’s image and offer new ways to interact with your clients and customers.

An effective site doesn’t necessarily have to be loaded with all of the bells and whistles.  A clean, eye-catching design with simple informational content may be all that is needed to extend the image of your “bricks-and-mortar” establishment.  We create those types of sites often here at Nordic Technologies, which we refer to as “brochure” sites.  The important thing to keep in mind is that you first want to grab the visitor’s attention – and then you want to keep them on your site.

When someone visits your site, you have mere seconds to create that first impression.  Slow page loading times, annoying popups, distracting content, page hit counters, cluttered or disorganized pages will not only cause a hasty retreat by your visitors, but it also runs the risk of giving the visitor the impression that your organization isn’t as professional as it truly is.

Clean, pleasing, and fast loading designs will create that initial interest for the visitor.  And while simple is good, be careful not to confuse “simple” with “boring”.  Graphical elements that flow well together in the overall design can provide that clean look while adding color and visual interest.

Okay, so now that you have their initial interest, you need to keep them there.  There are two things critical to doing this:  usability and content.  Usability, as the name implies, has to do with how easy it is for people to use and navigate your site.  Not only should they be able to easily and quickly find the information they are looking for, but they should also be able to find their way back.  One method some sites implement to accomplish this is called “breadcrumb” navigation, where the hierarchy of pages is shown as clickable links near the top of the page.  For example, a clothing site might show a breadcrumb navigation of “Ladies Apparel >> Accessories >> Belts and Scarves” at the top of the Belts and Scarves page to show the user how they arrived there.  It is also standard practice to provide a means for the visitor to return to the home page immediately.  This is usually done via a navigation link as well as making the organization’s logo a clickable image that returns the user to the home page.

The other element of your site that will keep visitors there and prompt their future visits is content.  Part of the beauty of the web is being able to deliver dynamic content – that is, content that changes as needed.  No longer should you be content to enter in some basic blurbs about your organization and call it a day.  Instead, you should be interested in creating what web developers call a “sticky site”.  You want to draw in visitors and encourage them to come back for more.  This is accomplished by providing them with useful and ever-changing information.  Some examples could be real-time weather forecasts or stock quotes, online scheduling, online ordering, blogs, community forums, chat rooms, updated articles, free stuff, contests, web cams, etc.  There could be many more examples that could be specifically tailored to each industry.  The possibilities are limitless.

So remember when you are thinking about creating your site:  Content may be king, but the way you present that content speaks volumes about your organization.