First Part To A Website

Your Header, Sidebars & Footer

First you have your heading, footer and sidebar. Each contains exactly what you want it to contain. Useful and pertinent information for contacting you, joining your email lists and navigating users throughout your website.

When you’re building your website you should only do this job once and make sure you have the right information in each section.  Consult your web designer for ideas on what works well in each section.

Second Part To A Website

Your On Page Content

Then you have the content on your webpages. Each page may or may not include a sidebar–but each page should certainly have at least one graphic (typically found at the top of the page), at least one H2 header (large headline text), and at least one paragraph of text. Each page you set up will be different and unique to the message you want to get across with that page.

This is what typically takes the most time to load and capture on your website. Its the bulk of the work because not only will you need to know what content you want on each page and how you want your message to come across, but your web developer will be responsible for creating tone and voice for you when they load it on the page.

Third Part To A Website

Designing Your Website’s Homepage

Lastly, designing your homepage. Here is where marketing really comes into play. Upon landing on your homepage its smart to direct traffic where You want them. This can be accomplished through intentional web design. There will always be more than one place you would like to direct traffic, and every SMB has different information they identify as pertinent and want to disclose up front to potential customers.

Often the home page will actually be the “About” page, however, the more intentional you are about simplicity in your websites’ marketing strategy the greater opportunity you have to hold peoples’ hand as you navigate them around your website, and hopefully through the front door of your business.

Again, after you have your online marketing strategy mapped out, consult with your web designer to build your homepage to execute that strategy.  The graphic to the left is an example of a very simple 3-point homepage that will direct your website visitors to one of three places.