There are three key facets that are essential to maintaining an effective online presence for any company: site design and layout, site content, and navigation. And there are some do’s and don’ts within each facet that small business owners should be aware of.

Design and Layout

Typically, not all the page content will appear in the browser when the page loads, so place the most important messages and images toward the top of the page. It only takes two seconds to lose a busy web surfer, so make sure headers and top content make an impact.

Avoid using generic clip art if you want a professional look. Clip art creates a cheap impression that reflects poorly on most companies, even if a company is great at what it does. Engage a graphics designer to create original images or search for images online that reflect the market(s) to be targeted or the company’s products or services.

Avoid using Flash presentations and animation if you want visitors to return regularly. Feature-rich Flash components can increase download times and often don’t provide significant commercial benefits over simple web pages.

Content

Website content consists of all the text, images, videos, and other material that is displayed on your site. Content should be used for two purposes: 1) to attract and inform visitors, and 2) to generate search engine rankings. The content should reflect the “physical” image of your company. Use existing logos, taglines, images, and other materials throughout your website.

Avoid using lengthy written content on every page. Visitors typically will not read every word, rather they skim the information for keywords or phrases they are interested in. Break up copy into easily digestible blocks that contain only what your customers need in order to make decisions.

Be certain to include keywords associated with your business in headers, image files, and written copy. This helps with rankings on search engines like Google, by showing relevance to what your customers’ are searching for.

Navigation

The way a visitor moves around your site is an important contributor to your company’s image. Include a site map so visitors can easily locate pages. A site map is also an essential component for search engine indexing. A search widget will also help with navigation; visitors can look for specific information relevant to their search within the company site.

It is important to include text links within the site’s copy. Even when menu links or image maps are located on the page, surfers may disable image display to speed download times; text links will still display under those conditions.
Don’t leave broken hyperlinks on your site. Broken links give an unprofessional appearance, which can translate to a lack of trust in your company. Have your site reviewed through different browsers to ensure link integrity.

When its complete, test your small business website to ensure that all the features, links, and design elements display properly. It may be helpful to have others review the site and share their experiences. Website building is not for everyone; small business owners who are not familiar with website design and functionality should visit our blog frequently for helpful tips and information.

Flash Websites (http://www.macromedia.com) were (and still are) a popular choice for website developers due to their ability to provide cool-looking and flashy (hah!) web sites. A flash website can be as interactive as you’d like, allowing you to add animated menus, clever interfaces and videos throughout your site.

However, over the past few years, the use of flash has decreased due to several problems related to performance, difficulty to maintain and update, and Search Engine Optimization issues.

Flash has been around for quite some time, and while it has been implemented by several applications, small and large, its support has dwindled a bit over the years. Flash is harder to work with than general HTML and CSS web authoring, and it also requires users to download plugins to use and use up more memory when navigating the site. As a result, users with slower, less updated computers may have trouble using website in Flash. As a result, media giants such as Apple, have dropped their support for Flash and gone with newer, faster programming languages such as HTML5. As a result, Flash websites are not supported or visible on mobile products such as iPads, iPhones and older mobile devices.

Flash websites are different from traditional websites in that Flash is like one big animation file that runs on your web server. It ‘reacts’ to certain actions done by users and animates accordingly. Therefore, in order to modify any content on a traditional flash website, a developer needs to open up the animation file, and re-arrange/compile the information in order to add new content. This makes it harder for non-developers to add content, which can be a huge program for SEO. Traditional websites based on a Content Management System such as Drupal or WordPress make adding content as easy as possible.

One of the most concerning problems associated with Flash is the fact that search engine spiders have a really hard time navigating the sites. This should be a huge warning sign for anyone wanting to rank high in Google. Since Flash is one big animation file (rather than a collection of web-pages linked together in HTML) Google only sees one big file. While Google’s current algorithm let it ‘peek’ into a flash website and determine what it’s about, it will likely miss a lot of the context of your website and therefore not rank your individual pages accordingly. For example, Google will likely not know that you have a ‘services’ page on your website, and an ‘about’ page, all it sees is one big animation file on your homepage. If Google doesn’t see new content, and can’t read what the content is about, your site will never rank.

Flash is a great tool for interactive websites that require no rankings and is ok with some older computers and mobile products (iPhones, iPads, iPods and older smart phones) not being able to access it. However, for those wanting to get online exposure, which is 99% of businesses out there, it would be best to stick to a traditional HTML/CSS website or look into HTML5 development.

Back in the 90s and early years at the turn of the millennium, building a website was a difficult tasks and left to the hardcore programmers who manually coded in HTML. Web designers were rare – remember those scrolling marquees and flashing icons? Those were the good ol days, but in the year 2011, many things have changed for the good. PHP/MySQL developed, helping expand the growth of web development. Developers built content management systems (CMS), dramatically decreasing the user’s need for coding experience. There’s no longer a need to handcraft and custom-build – just take 5 minutes to install WordPress and you got yourself a blog.

So why are there still people out there who want to create their own custom websites? Likely because they have specific needs that need to be fulfilled or something proprietary is being built, or they just have plenty of cash to afford something custom. But for the majority of those looking to build a decent-looking website, going with a CMS is the way to go. Personally, I like WordPress for simple sites and blogs and Drupal for more complex websites that require a large hierarchical structure.

Here’s why:

1) No need to reinvent the wheel. Someone has already spent thousands of hours building the backend structure, logins, administrative tools, etc to make a usable product. You don’t need to do the same.

2) Large community support. The WordPress and Drupal communities are huge with thousands of active developers and designers who will be able to help you with any questions you have. With a custom CMS, developers you hire would have to spend hours learning the code before they’re able to help you with anything.

3) WYSIWYG editors. Acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”. The mainstream CMSs like WordPress and Drupal allow you to simply type in the content into a text area, allowing you to create a full-blown page without any HTML knowledge.

4) Thousands of plugins. Need to add some functionality on your website? If your website is in HTML, it can be a miserable pain. But in WordPress and Drupal, you can just search for the plugin and module you need, download it, and with a few clicks, install it.

5) Constant security updates. With new security vulnerabilities discovered every day, with a custom CMS, you will have to constantly maintain to make sure it’s ok, unless you have a 2 or 3 page HTML website. With a mainstream CMS, you have people who will continuously update it for you!

6) Variety of themes. Don’t like the way your WordPress or Drupal website looks at the moment? No problem, just download a free theme and if you’re looking for something more, spend fraction on a premium theme than what you would with a custom web designer.

7) Easy to migrate. If you need to move to a different hosting company, moving a mainstream CMS is simple and if you need help, you can easily find someone to hire for a couple hours. A custom CMS can be a complete nightmare if you don’t have the right personnel.

So the next time you think of redesigning your website or someone mentions it to you, ask them if they can build it on WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. I personally can’t say I know much about Joomla, but I’ve heard good things about it. Stick with a big brand CMS and make your life easier!