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How to Build a Killer Web site

by Susanna K. Hutcheson

A lot of folks spend a ton of money on Web site design. But it's not the design that makes you money. It's two other things.

1. The first thing is excellent writing.

2. The second thing is useability.

What's useability? Simply put, it's how easy it is to navigate a site. That determines how you experience the site and whether or not you might make a purchase from that site.

The truth is, most sites are simply trash! The code is bad. People try to be cute with flash and graphics and color. They don't think of visually impaired or disabled people who use their site. Nor do many people who put up sites consider the aging eyes of Baby Boomers. Small type is not welcome to the aging eye. Nor are loud colors in the background.

People put things on their sites which are useless like horoscopes and news, forums no one uses and classified ads. They put up banners that send people flying off to some other site and look ugly in many cases.

We have to make it easy for people to use our site. Faced with any sort of technology, very few people take the time to read instructions. As Steve Krug says in his marvelous new book, "Don't Make Me Think", "instead, we forge ahead and muddle through, making up our own vaguely plausible stories about what we are doing and why it works."

How do people really read Web sites? Studies show that we first look at the upper left. We scan to the bottom right and back to the center of the page. We seldom read every word unless we're reading a news item and then we usually print it out for later reading.

So what's a webmaster to do? The useability experts at Future Now and other places suggest we put important words in bold.

On my site, I've put words and phrases in bold that go from upper left to lower right and back to center. If you read nothing but those bolded words, you'll get pretty much the gist of what I'm trying to tell you. And it works.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use long copy when it's called for. But it does mean that you must design your pages for the average reader who isn't really a reader but a scanner. Get it? I know it sounds nuts. But that's how it works.

But there are other items to be considered too. For example, hyperlinks. People expect to see hyperlinks in blue and underlined. They should also change color when they've been visited so folks will know they've been there.

In addition, hyperlinks to your most critical pages should go at the end of your first page, not near the top. You don't want to chance losing visitors even on your own site. There are certain things you would prefer they read before moving on --- even if they do scan and not read.

How much money should you spend on useability? In terms of gross averages, Jakob Nielsen, a highly respected useability expert, estimates that spending about 10% of a project's budget on usability activities doubles usability.

He recommends spending 10% of a project's budget on usability, but within a few years optimal ROI will probably require spending 20% or more. Next let's discuss writing for the Web. When you write your pages or when someone writes them for you, does it read like a dull brochure? Well, it shouldn't. No one wants to read that.

All in the world anyone cares about when they hit your site is what you can do for them. If all you talk about is you and how great you are, they'll move on. Tell them what you can do for them. Don't "me me" them to death. "You you" them into doing business with you.

What you want your site to do is convert visitors into buyers. I had a client tell me that before he used my service he had 1000 hits per day and about one small sale per week. Astounding isn't it?

But it happens all the time. It's very easy to get visitors. You simply pay for inclusion in search engines. You'll get all the visitors you want. But visitors don't pay the bills. Buyers pay the bills. Visitors who don't buy or fill out your forms or request your newsletter are just using your money. Each visitor costs you money if you pay for hits like most people do.

So you can't afford to have a lot of hits and no sales. That's just not smart.

I know you've heard before that you don't write for the Web the way you do for print. Well, it's true. When people have a mouse in their hand and a ton of sites to choose from, they're not going to stay on yours unless they have a compelling reason to do so.

So you have a few seconds to make a very grand impression. You have a few seconds to let folks know that they need to stick around at least long enough to see what's in it for them.

Your writing has to be quick and lively. It should lack hype. People hate hype on the net. They don't believe it. They won't read it.

They'll accept it on the radio or in print ads. But they won't accept it on the net. They want solid information to base decisions on.

People do buy on the net. They buy big time. And words are what they look at first. They look at graphics, if at all, only after the words and then only graphics that are important to the words. Many folks turn off graphics in their browsers all together.

And you must remember, most people still browse using a 28k modem. So if a graphic or a site takes more than about ten seconds to load, they're gone. And if you expect them to download a plugin to see your cool flash entry graphic . . . sorry! It's not goin' happen my friend. Not unless you're giving away a Cadillac to every visitor.

I've just touched the surface of things you need to consider when putting up your Web site and maintaining it.

You also need to consider making sure the html code is good and load time fast. You need to know that it can be seen the way you want it seen in all browsers. For that you can check it out at Net Mechanic. and the most important of all for certification go to The W3C site. Another good resource is Cecil Craig's site. This is a one-stop site that you don't want to miss.

Your site is some of your most valuable real estate. Even if you have a brick and mortar business, your site represents you and it's critical to your business life. It can be a moneymaker or a money loser. It can make you look terrific and successful or it can make you look like a bum. It's up to you.

Isn't it time you gave your site a kick start? Check it out carefully and critically.

Don't put it off. Remember, the competition has access to the same information you do. If they don't, they soon will. The net is big business and you can either be part of it and make money from it or just gather cob webs. It's totally up to you.

Susanna K. Hutcheson is a professional advertising and direct mail copywriter. She was the first copywriter to utilize the Internet as a place to market this type of service. Susanna has clients all over the world. She writes everything from Web site content to direct mail and radio spots. Visit her Web site at http://www.powerwriting.com. Her email address is powerwriter@powerwriting.com. Telephone: 316-665-7626.

© Copyright 2006 by Susanna K. Hutcheson and Power Communications LLC. Any republication in any manner is prohibited without the consent of Power Communications LLC or the author. We do give you limited permission to use this article on your Web site or in your newsletter if you print it or reproduce it exactly as it appears here including this entire notice. This article cannot be sold by you or published in a for-profit publication, a pay-per-view site or a site which sells memberships. It cannot be used by schools or in textbooks without our consent in writing. Rights to use this article for a purpose other than the type of distribution for which it is intended may be purchased from us. Call us at 316-665-7626. You may, however, link directly (not by redirect) to this article.