Your web site is one of your most important business tools — having a well-designed site can improve your company’s image and sales and increase the likelihood customers will return again and again. With multiple web design tools on the market, it may seem easy to upload your logo and contact information and launch a site. It’s better, however, to take your time and create a great design up front. Do some research before you get started; think about what you want to accomplish and about the visitors you want to attract. Define your goals so that you don’t get bogged down in the details and lose sight of the reasons you decided to create a web presence. Define Your Target Audience Who are your customers? Do a web search for similar businesses, and check out their sites, noting which graphic elements and functional features appeal to you and which do not. Look at the site from the perspective of a customer. Does the site look professional? Is information relevant and easy to locate? Bookmark the sites you feel strongly about — either in a positive or negative way — and refer back to them when designing your site. Thinking like a customer and knowing what works and what doesn’t will make the design process go more smoothly and improve your end result.

Define Your Goals If you’re running an e-commerce business, your ultimate goals are to generate product sales or get people to contact you for more information or schedule an appointment to talk about the services you offer. Your web site design can inspire browsers to become active shoppers. For example, if you maintain a product-based site, you’ll want to pay attention to pictures, create multiple category pages, and set up online shopping capabilities. If your company is service-based and your goal is to have people contact you for more information, you might focus on interactive elements — a survey, a poll, a contest, a free newsletter. Building Your Own Web Site Designing a professional-looking web site doesn’t have to be a time-consuming process. Many web hosting services and site design software include free web site templates. Using templates is a great way to jumpstart the site design process. Once you choose a template, collect all the necessary graphics (your logo, relevant photos and illustrations) and text, and then load them into the template. If you decide to build your site from scratch, start by building a site map — an outline that lists every page that will be on your site. In the design stage, this will help keep you organized and help you determine what graphics and copy you will need to complete your site. Start with the basic pages: - Home page - About us - Contact us - Products - FAQ Review your existing marketing materials to maintain consistency between the look (font and colors) and message of your online and print communications. Hiring a Professional Even with all of the great web design tools available, you may not have the time to build your own site, or you may feel that you need professional help. Any good designer will still want you to set goals and define your target market. A designer also will need you to provide existing graphics and text elements. Think through these issues and organize your materials before you start searching for a designer. Here are some things to look for in a web designer: - An experienced professional who has samples—many designers feature links from their site to other projects they have completed. - Someone who has worked with other small businesses or businesses in a field related to your own. - Someone who is responsive and easy to talk to. - Someone with references — follow-up by contacting the designer’s other clients. - Someone who will give you a quote in writing. - After you have a short-list of possible designers, meet with each one and choose the most compatible partner for your project. The Benefits of a Great Design Whether you do it yourself or seek outside help, keep your business goals in mind and stay involved throughout the process to make the project a success. You’ll use your web site every day to promote your business, increase your sales, and communicate with your customers, so ensuring that it looks great, is intuitive, and always is up-to-date will improve your sales and keep customers coming back.