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About the Author
Lee Traupel
Lee has over 20 years' marketing experience. He's the co-founder of a Northern California and Brussels, Belgium, based, privately held, Marketing Services and Software Company, Intelective Communications Inc. Intelective focuses exclusively on providing strategic and tactical services to small to medium sized companies.
10 Steps to Building a Click-Ready Website
There are no excuses for not having a Click-Ready Web site! Here is a simple 10 step check list to ensure you don't overlook anything.
1) Assemble a Website development plan that is integrated with your overall marketing processes
The content should be consistent with offline materials. The graphics/images don't have to be identical with traditional
media, but should be consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of colors etc.
2) Hire a Website design firm that understands your market position and one that won't get "geek crazy"
Meaning they are so in love with their own design capabilities, your site gets bogged down with graphics, plug ins, GIF garbage,
etc. But, conversely, check your ego at the door when you work with your design firm - I've seen so many good Website designs get ruined by clients who can't or won't listen to what we tell them!
3) Pay attention to "load times"
How long does it take your Website to load on a 56 KBPS modem? If it's more than 25 seconds you may experience the "click of death"
- the site doesn't load quickly and the surfer is gone. Of course, if you're targeting broadband customers who are reaching your site via ISDN or DSL then you can build a site that incorporates multimedia-ready content that may include streaming audio or video, or Shockwave or Flash capabilities - go ahead and let those digital geeks get carried away with cutting edge
content!
4) Dare I say it, "keep it simple"
Make your site easy to move around in, build a menu structure that is consistent with industry standards, local menus (for a
page or section) on the left and global menus (overall site navigation) at the top and/or bottom of each page, keep as much
information "above the fold" (above the cut off point at the bottom of a monitor), don't make people use horizontal scroll
bars unless absolutely necessary.
5) Inculcate "digital speed" into your overall site design
Your client/customers should be able to get to their desired area of your site within one or two mouse clicks; they will quickly get frustrated if they have to clickthrough multiple menus to find information they are seeking.