All the content you provide on your site needs to be easily found. That means coming up with some sort of navigational scheme that is sensible to your site's various constituencies. You can't just put it all out there in a list and expect individuals to find what they need. Potential customers need in order to quickly click to product information. Current customers need a fast link to owner's manuals and support resources.
The press must be able to easily find the photos and press releases they need. And everybody needs immediate access to contact information, whether in the form of a web contact page, clickable email addresses, or honest-to-goodness real-world numbers. In this respect, consider navigation to be in service to your site's content along with a necessary service.
What does this mean in practice? Well, this means some sort of easy-tounderstand hierarchy, using the model of directories and subdirectories and even sub-subdirectories.
For example, consider a company that manufacturers yard machinery lawn mowers, snow blowers, and so forth. This company uses its website to provide its products, offer customer documentation and support, provide service options, and steer visitors to local dealers. Additionally, it offers a press area for media support, a piece for investors, and a general "contact us" page. The first level of organization should apt to be by these general areas. As such, the site's main menu system should include the following options:
The nonconsumer areas (press, investors, and phone us) probably don't belong on the main menu. Instead, they can be accessed via links at the end of the home page.
So far, so good. But the corporation offers a number of products. So maybe clicking the Products menu displays a Products page, with additional links to the different types of products lawnmowers, snow blowers, weed whackers, and so on. But that's two clicks to get to some more specific product line page and then a minimum of another click to see specific product models. Customers don't prefer to click so much; it's better if there are direct links or submenus to get towards the product line pages faster.
It's not just your site's webpage that's important. You need to design every page on your site with similar intensity of focus. That's because you don't know on which page a visitor might enter your site. Not everybody types your home page's URL to their browsers; some visitors come via links found elsewhere on the Web.
To that end, you'll need to think about some pages on your site as dedicated squeeze pages those pages that visitors land on when entering from another site. Some squeeze pages might be obvious product pages, for example, or pages dedicated to a particular brand. These pages should be treated as though they were home pages.
Other squeeze pages are devised to serve other web marketing activities. For example, if you create a pay-per-click advertisement, you need to create a unique landing page that customers see when they click that ad. You don't want customers clicking from a product-specific ad to land on your site's general webpage; you want them landing on the page that follows directly from the advertisement they just clicked.
Landing pages of this type are only for presenting a consistent image to potential customers. You wouldn't get a lot of sales if a person clicked on an advertisement for blenders and landed on a page that talks about your company's vast international manufacturing capability. That kind of inconsistent message is really a surefire way to get people to click to someone else's site.
Which means you need to create a number of activity-specific landing pages on your site. Each landing page has to be product- or service-specific and reference the ad or activity that led to the page. Each landing page must also continue your overall site branding, as every page on your site should. Use the landing page to carry on the customer's journey; offer her the information she clicked for and supply a path on her to get even more info or buy the product.
When it comes to creating your web presence, it all starts with your website. Construct your website having a marketing focus making sure it's easy for your visitors to find what they're searching for with few unnecessary interruptions. Present this content in small, easily accessible modules and design your pages to reinforce your existing brand or product image. And anything you do, don't let the design and technology people add lots of useless stuff towards the site; keep the focus on your current and potential prospects and keep things as simple as possible.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Keith Norris at 03142011
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