Website Design or Redesign as an Effective Online Business.

Website Design Ideas

Your website design or website redesign should take into consideration both appearance, content and search engine optimization (SEO) as part of your Inbound Marketing efforts. Chances are that if your site is more than a few years old, SEO strategies weren't a major part of your website design and your overall marketing efforts were probably built around Outbound marketing methods. Make them a priority from the outset.

Other redesign considerations include animation, multimedia and online payment options:

• Do you use Flash or other animation on your site? If so, is it distracting or effective? Do graphics hamper your search term exposure and SEO campaign? If you don't have any animation, consider whether moving images might enhance your interface.

• Is multimedia such as videos, podcasts or images available on your site presently? Multimedia helps with SEO, and your website should allow for easy upload and use of new multimedia content.

• If you handle transactions online, is it easy to make a payment? If you don't handle transactions online, is it worth considering this as added value? Effective online businesses often have direct payment mechanisms.

Optimizing Site Traffic

As you develop your website redesign, determine the optimal flow of visitors on your site. For whatever information you put in front of your audience, there should be an ideal path that they follow. Is it clear where your audience can find out more? Is it compelling enough to make them want to learn more?

The flow ends with a call to action, of course, but the call can be interspersed throughout the site, rather than merely on a "Contact Us" page. If you've already sold them from the first paragraph, great! Make it easy for them to contact you or reply at any point on your website.

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