Expert Panel: Website Design Best Practices

Transcription

1 Expert Panel: Website Design Best Practices Panelist: Craig Chapman, Funder and Creative Directr - Rare Earth Interactive Peter Wattles, Owner Lring Web Services Mark Ossenfrt, Owner Crssrads Media Mderatr: Janine Sika, Channel Marketing Leader Veri

2 Abut Veri Premier Web Hsting, Applicatin Hsting and SaaS applicatins vendr Financially stable Part f NTT Cmmunicatins (wrld s largest Telecmmunicatins cmpany) Owns the data centers and IP netwrk Award-winning services Highest perfrmance available 24X7 Technical and custmer supprt Industry leading Service Level Agreements 100% fcused n channel

3 viaveri Partner Prgram Via 1 Partner Mdel 15% recurring cmmissin n all custmer sales Yu d nt have t prvide mnthly billing, technical r custmer supprt (Veri handles) Via 3 Partner Mdel Allws partners t purchase ur services at whlesale prices (nearly half retail pricing) Resell services fr a prfit t end-custmers Yu prvide mnthly billing, technical and custmer supprt t end custmers Cntact us at r

4 Craig C. Chapman Funder and Crea1ve Directr Rare Earth Interac1ve

5 Abut Rare Earth Interac0ve Rare Earth has been develping innvative slutins fr SMEs, educatin and nt-fr-prfits since 1998 We have ver 100 custmers in 17 states We have been a prud Veri Partner since 1999 We are marketers first, whse medium f chice is the Internet We pride urselves in ur track recrd f turning arund underperfrming websites with a few simple best practices Virtually all custmers see an immediate, psitive impact frm a fresh Rare Earth design with increased cnversins, better rganic SEO penetratin, and lwer cst-per-click investments Chief amng these best practices are fur simple wrds that guide everything we d...

6 Design Best Prac0ces

7 Design Best Prac0ces This is ur #1 Maxim. What this means is: Any visitr t any f ur custmer s websites shuld be able t intuitively knw what t d in 3 secnds r less Any pint in the website shuld be intuitively accessible thrugh the site s navigatin Calls t actin shuld be clear, bvius and engaging Cntent must be well-written, with crrect spelling, usage, and punctuatin t, t, and tw there, they re, and their let s eat, grandma! vs. let s eat grandma!

8 Design Best Prac0ces Anything that gets in the way f a visitr s experience is bad! This includes: Websites built purely in Flash, r use Flash fr things that can be dne using mdern HTML develpment techniques Technlgies that assault the visitr with unslicited audi: Self-starting vides with audi Unslicited backgrund music Thse bnxius walk-n agents Prly-written cntent

9 Design Best Prac0ces Dn t make me think extends t search engines, t: Websites built purely in Flash, can t be indexed very well, cntrary t what Ggle and Adbe say - this renders cntent invisible t search Everything (r as much as pssible) shuld be in plain text, including: Yur navigatin menus Yur page titles Text-based animatin elements All images shuld have alt cntent Ignre the Meta Keywrds tag - it s wrthless! Fcus instead n yur website s Title tag and the Meta Descriptin tag

10 Cntact Infrma0n Craig C. Chapman Crea%ve Directr / President Rare Earth Interac%ve Design, Inc. h9p:// Crea1ng innva1ve ebusiness slu1ns since [email protected] Tll-Free: (877) Telephne: (716) Facsimile: (877)

11 Peter WaIles Owner Lring Web Services

12 Market Shifts in Web Design and CMS New versus Old: Web designer creates designs and adds cntent Shift - Install CMS template and cntent updates are nging Client depends n Web designer fr frequent updates Shift - Client is cmfrtable with nline cntent tls, similar t ebay/facebk Frms and database apps expensive t implement r change Shift - Functinality is easily added with a few clicks - frnt and n the backend Website design and cding are time cnsuming and expensive Shift CMS sets up in minutes and design and functinality can be dynamic Held hstage by my web cmpany fr updates and supprt (adversarial relatinship) Shift My web cmpany teaches me hw t d it myself and they help me save mney

13 Web Design Sells Web Design? Old paradigm f selling the sizzle = frequent updates and redesigns = mre $$$ Marke1ng Cntent Client r Marketer Hs1ng reseller Backend stuff ecmmerce ther func1nality Custmers Direct Referral Web Site Marke1ng and design crea1n Page specific SEO Keywrd stuffing/ drway pages etc. start Marke1ng and design crea1n Hs1ng Cding Hs1ng Cntent Sales Links Ggle Fund! Analy1cs SEO Custmers Best Prac1ces fr Design / Cding Veri / Netwrk Slu1ns / G Daddy Cntent updates Tech supprt /billing Hs1ng reseller Nn specific hsts sites can be hsted anywhere & easily mved Hs1ng reseller

14 CMS - Sells Hsting & Keeps Clients New paradigm f selling cntrl = lwer cst f wnership Migrate Design t FW Startup Cst = budget $$$ $$ $ Custm Mdified Free Marke1ng and design crea1n / ff page SEO wrk Custmers Direct Referral Custmers Scial Netwrking Sites Web Site start Hs1ng CMS Design Cntent Links Design in these FW Wrd Press Drupal Jmla easy intermediate advanced Training and supprt Free O.S. Cntent Manager Leverages OS plug ins frequent updates largest install base. lw cst f wnership Analy1cs Sales SEO Lng term supprt Fr CMS / hs1ng Hs1ng reseller Ggle Fund! Custmers Push Cntent Client r Marketer

15 Market Shifts in Web Design and CMS Summary All web sites must have sme kind f cntent management CMS Prvides these advantages: Lng term client retentin Client empwerment Instant updates f cntent and functinality Lk and feel changes n the fly using CSS cntrlled designs Open surce slutins like Wrd Press, Jmla & Drupal allw develpers t leverage the pen surce cmmunity - imprved functinality, testing and security fr free. Very lw startup csts and cst f wnership. Web designers and cders becme framewrk integratrs, while still maintaining cntrl ver the applicatins as well as creative lk and feel. Frm a clients perspective yu shift frm an adversarial t c-perative relatinship.

16 Cntact Infrma0n Peter Wattles Owner Lring Web Services url: h9p:// telephne: (781)

17 Mark Ossenfrt Owner Crssrads Rads Media

18 Use f Vide Tell Yur Stry Tell yur stry within 60 secnds Intrductin vide Mre than ne! G deeper Detailed vides Why bther? Alright nw hw much?! Nw hw d I d this? Website presentatin Web page placement D nt frget abut yur cmpany! Training and/r FAQs

19 Media - CMS Vide YuTube and Vime custmers g utside/away f yu Nt simple fr mst cmpanies There will nly be MORE vide cntent Audi Messages/Teaching/Training Audi Blgging Pictures Hw are yu currently handling this? Open Surce Slutins? Need t prep yur servers yu can utsurce!

20 Keep It Simple! KISS Minimal first page Use vide t tell yur stry Yu can tell mre in less time Less animatin up frnt Think like a stre in a shpping mall Like yur visitrs Make it a simple and clean experience Help visitrs fcus n what yu want them t T many distractins and shw ff items?? Remember repeat visitrs Have a direct link fr them

21 Cntact Infrma0n Mark Ossenfrt Owner Crssrads Media url: telephne: (561)

22 Panelist: Craig Chapman, Crea1ve Directr Rare Earth Interac1ve Peter WaIles, Owner Lring Web Services Mark Ossenfrt, Owner Crssrads Media Mderatr: Janine Sika, Channel Marke1ng Leader Veri

23 Thank Yu! Interested in becming a viaveri Partner? Visit r call Janine Sika: [email protected]