In some ways, it seems like the Internet has been with us forever. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of our increasingly virtual world, your website might be the first – not to mention last and only – point of contact for an interested customer or colleague. A company with a poorly constructed home page, or one that doesn’t accurately reflect their vision, goals, or unique selling propositions, no longer has anywhere to hide… or anyone to hide behind.
In the “old days,” a smiling face at the front counter or a friendly voice on the phone could be enough to seal the deal. Business was all about relationships, and marketing materials, early websites included, were usually secondary to the people you employed. Now, strategies have changed slightly. Relationships still matter, but they are increasingly built from initial online impressions.
That seems obvious when you stop to think about the ways people use the Internet, but it has some heavy implications for your home page design and message. If you’re going to engage someone to interact with you in some way – and what business site isn’t designed to gather leads, sell products, or promote a message? – then it had better convey some key pieces of information, namely: who you are, what you do really well, and how you can help the visitor, direct from the home page.
What’s more, that information needs to be obvious and accessible, regardless of what type of browser or device they’re coming to you from. If your home page isn’t loading correctly, that’s a problem.
A shortcoming in any of these areas is going to result in a miss; the reader is going to surf along and find what they’re looking for on a competitor website. Wasted visitors are the equivalent of wasted time, wasted money, and a potentially large number of wasted future sales.
Just a few years ago, websites with Flash introductions were the latest-and-greatest thing, and for good reason: they just looked so cutting-edge. If visitors couldn’t figure out how cool your company was from the flowing animation and sound… well, that was between them and Internet Explorer 4.
Recently though, having a Flash intro has become the web equivalent of sporting a Britney Spears world tour tee shirt: a little bit annoying, and a sign that you’re not really keeping up with what’s going on in the world. Here are a few reasons to ditch your site’s animated and outdated opening:
It’s no longer impressive. Flash isn’t a new thing, so it’s not going to impress your clients or colleagues. There was a time when people genuinely thought they were cool, but now they’re just in the way of the information they’re trying to find.
It’s annoying. How many people do you know who actually watch these things, much less leave the sound on? The answer you’re looking for is zero. No one has enough time in the day to finish the things they actually need to accomplish, so don’t think they’re going to waste it watching your opening shots.
It’s bad for usability. Flash intros are almost unique amongst web features for the way it’s completely cosmetic. It doesn’t help anyone find, do, or buy anything. That isn’t to say there aren’t great places to use Flash on your site – because there definitely are – but a 15 second opening isn’t helping your visitors.
It’s costing you money. Beyond eating small amounts of bandwidth and bigger chunks of your customers’ patience, Flash intros cost you money because they can reduce the amount of time your visitors are willing to spend on your site. By hiding your content behind a screen of video and sound, they make it harder for the people who are searching for your product or service to find you… and that’s never good for the bottom line.
Flash intros were a cool idea once, but that time has come and gone. If you’re serious about building a business website, ditch the annoying openings and introduce your visitors to a quality home page.
We’re gold sponsors at one of the hottest Digital Marketing events of the year – DigiMedia.me.
Discover what’s what in Digital Marketing at this new Digital Media Conference to be held in Dubai 5th and 6th of May 2010. This two-day summit is designed for marketing professionals who want to better understand today’s fast-paced digital developments and take advantage of tomorrow’s online marketing channels.
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The lovely people over at www.thecssawards.com awarded our website "Site of the Day" last Thursday (05/11/2009). This is great news because these awards are "given to the best CSS websites in the world from the top designers, agencies and bloggers working today", so we're very happy to be included in this prestigious list.
If you have not checked out the site yet, you must. The websites listed there are a big inspiration for everything that is great about web design. Each website is rated by an international panel of judges on 4 main criteria (design, creativity, usability and content).
Here you can see how we did:
- Design – 6.75
- Creativity – 7.75
- Usability – 6.88
- Content – 6.5
Overall we scored 6.98 so not bad but plenty of room for improvement. We'll be heading back to the drawing board to see if we can knock this up a bit further.
Besides all the obvious benefits of producing standards complaint websites in XHTML & CSS, here is another one - your site can then be listed in the numerous CSS galleries out there which in turn is great for search engine optimization (SEO) and general spreading of the love. We’ve been lucky enough to be listed on a few (see list below) and via the use of Google Analytics I can see that they generate a fair amount of traffic. It’s definitely worth it so if I was you I’d submit your site to as many galleries you can find. Start with the list below, and while you’re there, why not vote on ours ;-)
www.csswow.com
www.rgbgarden.com
cssbased.com
cssfury.com
www.styleprone.com
www.css-design-yorkshire.com
wowcss.com
www.cssstyle.me
cssillustrated.com/agency/blue-beetle/
101bestwebsites.com
www.bestcssgallery.com
www.cssmoon.com
www.bestcssvault.com
www.cssevo.com/2009/blue-beetle/
www.cssgarden.co.uk/profile/781
www.cssluxury.com/2009/09/blue-beetle-2/
www.inspiracaoweb.com.br
www.csscutie.com
www.csspose.com
www.website-gallery.com
TIP: If you're too busy to visit the plethora of gallaries out there, this site is a great time saver: www.thecssgallerylist.com.
