Choosing the colors for your website is an important decision that can be especially tough when designing a site for a business that has no established color scheme.  You may not have realized it, but the colors of your site can actually have a psychological effect on your visitors.

I recommend that you select three colors that you will use consistently throughout your site.  For your primary color, you may want to consider the emotions that specific colors can invoke.  For example:

• Red: food, energy, passion, excitement, power, aggression, danger, adventure.
• Yellow: light, optimism, happiness, brightness, joy, curiosity, playfullness.
• Blue: coolness, spirituality, freedom, patience, loyalty, peace, trustworthiness, success, healing.
• Brown: comfort, strength, stability, credibility, earth, nature.
• Green: animals, life, nature, restfulness, health, wealth, prosperity.
• Orange: friendliness, warmth, approachability, energy, playfulness, courage, creativity, youth.
• Purple: wisdom, sophistication, celebration, royalty, justice, uncertainty.
• Black: power, elegance, secrecy, mystery.
• Gray: security, maturity, reliability.
• White: purity, cleanliness, youth, freshness, peace, simplicity.
• Pink: romance, sweetness, innocence, tenderness, youth.

Think about how other colors will work with the primary color that you have chosen.  There are several free online applications that can help you choose your combined color palette, such as:

• http://colorschemedesigner.com
• http://kuler.adobe.com
• http://www.pictaculous.com

As you are making your selections, you will want to choose colors with a strong contrast in order to make sure that your text is easily readable on the background.  Even though black text on a white background is the standard for readability, there are many other acceptable combinations that will work for people with visual disabilities.  Here are some free online applications that will allow you to test your color schemes for visibilty by people with color deficiencies:

• http://www.iamcal.com/toys/colors/
• http://www.etre.com/tools/colourcheck/

Your color scheme needs to be carefully considered since the wrong choice may have an adverse effect on your visitors, leading to lost traffic and lost sales.  Take your time and choose wisely. 

Whether you are a multinational corporation or a one-person home-based business, your brand says a lot about you and your company.  It can help set you apart from the competition and form the groundwork for future growth.  Your brand is more than just a logo on your letterhead and business cards.  It is your identity, letting the world know who you are, what you do, and how you do it.  

When creating your brand, there are several things to think about.  Who is your target audience?  What is important to them?  What are your business's key features and competitive advantages?  Why would somebody choose you over your competition?

In today's world, where the search engine is king, developing a business name, logo, and tagline that not only expresses your identity, but also optimizes on key search terms is extremely important.  The colors and fonts you use should help to relay the mood or feeling that you are trying to get across.

It is important to remember that all pieces of your brand should be suitable for use on your letterhead, business cards, website, catalogs, menus, decor, and signage.  When marketing across different platforms, such as direct mail, newspaper, Facebook, Twitter, email, and your website be sure that all of these mediums have the same look and feel.  When directed to your website through other media, a tight integration of the branding experience will tell your customer they have come to the right place, encourage further investigation, and support their decision to return in the future.

The Rule of Seven says a prospective customer needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action.  If everything in your brand is used consistently, over a short period of time, you will achieve instant recognition.

The main purpose of your navigation is to get your customers to the information they want quickly and easily.  For this reason, it is important that you keep the 3-click rule in mind.  This rule says that all pages on your site should be accessible within 3 clicks of the homepage.  If you think about it, this makes sense; rarely do we make it to the 4th page of a search engine.  We just aren't patient enough.  Instead, if we don't find what we are looking for on the first 3 pages, we refine our search and simply start over.  Imagine what this means for the staying power of your site.  If your visitors get impatient, they are off to another site to become their customers instead.

It is especially important for sites with a lot of detailed information to plan, plan, plan.  When you think you have a good navigation plan, try simulating the common steps that visitors might take to get information from your site, then modify your plan to reduce the number of clicks. 

No matter where your customers are on your site, they should always be able to find their way back to your home page.  This is done by adding a link to your business logo and a "home" link in your navigation menu.

Locate your main navigation near the top of the site either at the left-side of the page or just below the header.  This guarantees your customers won't have to scroll to find it.  Keep this navigation consistent from page to page, with the only possible exception being to your home page.

Sometimes it is fun to add graphics to your navigation, giving your site a little character.  Be sure to add text to the graphics, since images that seem so obvious to you may not be quite so apparent to your visitors.  Remember, confusion leads to lost customers.

It is important that your users be able to tell where they are at all times in your site.  You can provide this information by highlighting an item on the navigation menu, including the information in the page header, or adding "breadcrumbs" to give your visitor a step-by-step guide showing where they are in a current section of content.

Of course, we always want to be thinking of the future, so be sure to make your navigation menu as flexible as possible, allowing room for growth. 

Did you know that your navigation also helps search engine robots index your site?  A simple way to help the robots access all of your content is to include a site map with links to every page.  This is particularly helpful if your site has dynamic content, pages that aren't easily discoverable, or includes a large archive of content pages that aren't linked to each other. 

Ever heard the old adage, why mess with a good thing?  Well, that’s certainly true when it comes to the layout of your website.  Your customers don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to look for information on your site.  There are certain things they expect, and if you want them to stick around, you really need to meet those expectations. 

Size Matters

It is important to keep your pages short.  The majority of web users will never scroll more than four pages down, and most prefer to have all of the information provided in two.

In order to make sure that web users with smaller monitors won’t have to scroll left and right to see the content on your site, it is best to limit the width of your page to 776 pixels.  However, you can consider a page width of 960 pixels if you know your audience is made up of higher end users with the latest technology. 

It’s important to keep the file size of your webpage small.  This includes not only the text on your page, but also the size of the graphics and other files that have to load in order to support your page.  The sum total of these files controls the speed at which your page loads.  There are a lot of people still using a 56K modem, and if it takes them longer than 8 seconds to load the key information on the page, they are on their way to check out another site.  It’s a good idea to test your pages for speed before turning it out to the real world.

Location, Location, Location

Web users are busy people, often having multiple things going on at one time, and for this reason, they will resize their browser windows to fit as much on their screen as possible.  Be sure to place your content at the top of the page and either center it or place it all the way to the left so it’s not affected by these changes to the browser size.

Most websites will place the navigation at the top of the page or to the left.  Since this is what your customers are used to, it’s really a good idea to stick with it.  The occasional site will place the navigation on the right, but this is only successful if done right.  The smart thing to do is stick with what you know works, and keep it up and to the left.

Short and Sweet

Visitors to your site really don’t like to read; they scan, and usually in the shape of an F.  They start at the top scanning left to right, move down a bit and scan left to right, followed by a scan down the left side of the page. 

This means that you need to keep your information short and sweet, make sure that the first two paragraphs on the page contain the important information that you want to get across quickly and follow these by bulleted or highlighted information with key data in the first two words of whatever is listed.

The Look

When designing your site, it’s a good idea to use web safe colors that will look the same on any computer with any browser.  And while you’re at it, don’t forget to test your color combinations for color deficient eyesight.  8% of all men and ½% of all women have some form of colorblindness.  That’s a good portion of your audience, so don’t forget about them.

Don’t flood your site with images or graphics that are popping and flashing all over the place.  Your audience will lose sight of the important stuff, your message.  Make sure it looks neat and clean by adding white space to break up and emphasize the information that you want to get across.

Finally, it’s important to be consistent with the look of your site as you go from page to page.  Once your customers have arrived at your site and decided they are interested enough to move on to the next page, don’t take a chance of losing them by trying something new.  Be sure to give them what they expect and they may stick around a little bit longer.

One of the biggest decisions you will have to make when developing your Website is deciding who will build it.  You need a talented Web designer in order to effectively symbolize your business for the digital world.  Though modern Web design tools have made it easy to throw a site together, a poorly developed Website can have a negative impact on your business.

To build a Website properly, one must understand visual appeal and how it affects your customer’s experience, know how to provide functionality that will make the site usable, and have the ability to craft messages that are interesting enough to hold your customer’s attention.  In other words, you must be a designer, developer, and marketer all rolled into one.

Here are a couple of things to consider before deciding to handle your Website development internally:
Do you have the expertise required?  Do you understand the technology and the tools?

If you answered No to either of these questions, then you must take into account significant delays to your project as you work to fix these issues.

Of course, there are some pros to developing you Website in-house.  You will have complete control over your project, and the in-house knowledge will allow you to make future enhancements or modifications without incurring additional external expenses.  But, on the other hand, professional Website designers build sites for a living and can drastically cut your implementation time and improve the quality of your site.

For your website to be effective, it must speak to your target market, the main audience that you want to have visit your website and benefit from your products and services.  As a matter of fact, to be truly effective your website needs to speak to your ideal client.  So, take a look at your current clients.  Is there a particular group you prefer to work with?  What qualities do they share?  Do your best clients come from the same industry or profession?  Do they own the same type of business?  Do they share a particular personality trait or outlook on life, fall within a specific age range, live in a particular geographical location, or maintain a certain income level? 

Take a look at the trends you find in your current client base for clues.   There are details associated with your ideal client, such as:

• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Income level
• Marital Status
• Education level
• Geographic location
• Whether or not they have children
• Social or professional affiliations
• Personal interests

Once you know who you are talking to you can design a website that speaks to him or her.  For example:

Every industry or profession has common terms that have specific meanings to the members of that group.  Using this language on your website shows that you understand them.

In addition to enhancing you local search engine rankings, referencing geographic information in your copy helps your visitors know they have come to the right place.

You will be able to determine your color palette, select your imagery, and organize the information on your site, as well as tailor your Internet marketing plan to your market and maximize your return on investment, giving you the most for your time and money.

It is important to know if your target market makes use of the Internet.  Will they even be interested in purchasing your products or services online?  Try talking to several people within your market and listening to what they have to say.

Jumping into your website creation without knowing your target market is like shooting a bow and arrow without ever taking aim.  If you hit the target it was pure luck.

Now that we have picked out the perfect domain (or hopefully domains), it is time to start thinking about your website.  So, first things first.  You need to define your purpose, what you want to achieve.  You need to know why you are taking the time (and marketing dollars) to build a website.  As in anything in life, if you don't have a clear and measurable goal, you can't be successful, so here is where it all begins. 

Businesses (and individuals) build websites for many reasons:  
    - To communicate an image
    - To sell a product or service
    - To generate leads
    - To advertise an online catalogue or brochure
    - To reduce overhead
    - To provide customer service
    - To publish important news and events
    - To provide information to a niche audience
    - To publsh images or photos for viewing
    - To provide a means of accessing other websites
    - To satisfy a need for social interaction

Whatever your purpose, this is the first step.  Treat the definition of purpose as you would any other major business decision.  Think about the return on investment and make yourself accountable.  You need to know what you want to accomplish and what your visitors will want to gain.

Once you have it figured out, write it down.  Make it your mission, a Website Mission Statement.  Be clear and concise.  Let this guide your actions, spell out your overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide your decision-making.  This is the context within which your website design will be formulated.  Think about  your target market, moral / ethical image, key features, special considerations, and expectations of growth.  Then break it down into small achievable goals and keep it  visible at all times.  Know how and when you plan to evaluate your progress. 

This may sound a bit overwhelming, but taking the time to do it up front will help you develop a site that can grow and improve over time.  Otherwise, you might as well be trying to hit a moving target, and you will never feel the satisfaction of even a small success.

Now that we have established that everyone needs a website, let's jump right in.  Ask any web developer and they will tell you, the first step is to register your domain name.

You can register your domain name at www.grab-my-domain.com.

OK, but what exactly is a domain name?  In technical terms, a domain name is an identifier that maps to an IP address on a web server.  Wow!  Maybe we should put that in terms we can all better understand.

To put it simply, a domain name is much like a telephone number.  When you enter a domain name into the address bar of an internet browser, it's like making a phone call, but instead of getting a person you get a website.  And, like a telephone number, a domain name is unique.  That's right, unique!  Only one person or business can register a domain name anywhere in the entire world!  Also like a phone number, a domain name is exact.  Dial the wrong number and you get the wrong person; mistype a domain name and you get the wrong website.  Worse yet; it may be a competitor's website!

So what does this mean to you?  Well, it means that picking your domain name is one of the most important things you can do when planning your website. 

So how do I pick my domain name?  Don't automatically assume that the best domain name for your business is the "name" of your business.  Oh sure, there's value in that; name recognition and all that stuff.  But, instead, consider the following when identifying a domain name that is right for you.  

What type of business are you in?  Your domain name should tell people a little bit about you; what they can expect from you and your website.  Your business fills a niche, use it.

Avoid confusion. Your domain name should be distinguishable from that of your competitors.  It should be easy to spell with very few explanations.  You don't want to spend your hard-earned marketing dollars advertising for someone else and directing your potential customers to your competitors websites.  

Key phrases.  Include key phrases in your domain name.  This can help improve your rankings with many of the popular search engines.  Consider placing dashes "-" between the words in your domain name.  Though not as easy for your customers to remember, the search engines really do like it, and you may find that the domain name you are looking for is more readily available.  

Does size matter?  Well, that depends.  Short is great when advertising your site on the radio, but that's not necessarily true when looking at what makes a domain name interesting to a search engine.  The general rule of thumb is to try to keep your domain name to three words or less.

Numbers.  Yes, numbers.  Why numbers?  Well, they count as characters in a domain name.  So, consider the number 4 in place of "for"  and 2 in place of "to" when picking your domain name.  And while we're talking about such things, what about the letter u in place of "you"?  You see where we're going with this?

Can I have more than one?  Certainly you can.  As a matter of fact, I recommend it.  The more the merrier.  The nice thing about domain names is you can point one at another, kind of like forwarding phone calls.  And, there are a lot of good reasons for having more than one domain name:

Protect yourself.  It is important to protect your name.  If you don't, your competitors might.  And once they register that domain name, you can't, unless they're willing to sell it to you, at their cost!  OUCH!  What's worse, they may point it at their site and start taking some of your potential business away.  So, register your business name, corporate name, dba, anything that you use to identify yourself.  

Stick it to 'em.  Speaking of your competition and those sneaky tactics they may pull.  Why not do it to them?  If you have a competitor with one of those oh-so recognizable names, grab the domain name, and use it or just hold on to it.  Hey!  If they had thought of it first, they would have done it to you, right?

Misspellings.  Consider registering common misspellings of your business name.  I mean, take a look at the mail you receive from the post office every day.  Ever notice how many ways people will try to mispell your company name?  There you have it.  Nice thing about the post office is, they can usually still find you.  Not so on the web.  As I said before, domain names are exact.  So register those common misspellings as well.

Do it NOW.  It is important that you don't wait to register your domain name.  There are already over 100 million domain names registered worldwide.  This has grown from a measly 10 million over the last 10 years and continues to increase by about 10 million every year.  So, whether you are ready to move your company to the web or not, once you find the domain name that is right for you, just do it!  Otherwise, when you actually get around to it, it may be too late!

Don't forget to register your domain at www.grab-my-domain.com.

Recordkeeping.  It's very important that you keep accurate records of your domain names.  Keep up with the date of registration, date of expiration, where you registered your domain, and the credentials required to log on if you did it yourself on the internet, for each and every domain that you register.  You also want to make sure that your domain name is set up with the correct contact information.  Your email address associated with your domain name should always be correct.  You will receive your renewal notices at this email address, so if you stop receiving emails at that location, you will no longer be reminded when it is time to renew.  Next thing you know, your website is down and you are out a couple of hundred dollars trying to recover your domain name.  It's just not worth it!  Maintain those records.  Stay on top of it. 

Working with a service provider.  One thing that I have noticed with many of my clients who have migrated their domains to White Knight Technologies is that their previous service provider held their domain name hostage.  What does that mean?  Well, instead of registering the domain in their name, the domain was registered in the service providers name.  Never, never ever, let that happen.  Your domain registration belongs to you, and registration in your name is the only way you have to prove it.  So once you have registered your domain name, it is a good idea to check to make sure it really has been registered to you. 

You can check the ownership information of a domain at whois.grab-my-domain.com.

Many businesses ask the question, do I need a website?  My answer is uncategorically YES.  Having a website online allows customers, potential employees, and business partners to quickly and easily find out more about your business products and services.

In the past, potential customers would use the Yellow Pages to search for a business in their area that provided a product or service they needed.  But today, that same customer will use a search engine to find a list of businesses that meets their needs with instant access to a world of information about each of the businesses on the list.  That's right, I'm talking about their web pages.  Pages that are filled with information about their products, prices, locations, directions, contact information, and often the ability to purchase what they need right their online for delivery to their home or office.

Having a website is referred to as having a "corporate presence."  Potential customers will often want to "check you out" before taking that first step to building a business relationship with you.  Since your site may be the first chance you have to make an impression, it is important that it be professional-looking.  Done right, your website will add visibility and credibility to your business. 

In addition, the internet is one of the most cost-effective means of advertising that is currently available to the small business owner.  Websites are surprisingly low cost, having infinite potential limited only by your imagination.  And unlike printed advertising, a website is dynamic in nature, giving it the ability to change as your business grows and changes.

That being said, you should never consider your website to be the end all beat all of advertising, but instead include it as part of your overall marketing strategy.  By advertising your website in addition to your product and services, you give your potential customers the opportunity to learn more about your product or services than they could possibly gain from a printed ad.

White Knight Technologies, "saving you from the web of confusion".

Small businesses everywhere are trying to take advantage of the internet as a way of marketing their products and services.  With millions upon millions of businesses already on the internet and many more joining their ranks daily, understanding what to do to best use this resource can be a daunting task for even the savviest of business owners.  It is the goal of these tips to guide you with the information necessary to place your business on the most extensive marketing media available today, the internet!

So join us as we breakdown this tangled world wide web.  We will provide you with the information you need to understand why your business should be on the internet, important considerations for the development of your site, options for achieving your ultimate goals, and several all-important internet marketing strategies. 

White Knight Technologies, "saving you from the web of confusion".