The Clear Guide to Online Business Sixth Step in Developing a Web Site

After deciding on your goal and your target market, you have written the text to attract that group of site visitors. Now it’s time to actually start designing the site.

Different groups are attracted by different site characteristics.

If your target market consists of business owners, you can develop a straightforward, businesslike site. Your pictures might show ordinary business scenes, show you presenting a business seminar, or show office workers using your product. Colors would be strong and clear, yet not flashy.

If you want to attract young mothers for your mother-and-baby-related product, the look of your site will be soft. You might include pictures of babies and/or good-looking mothers along with your products. The colors should probably be pastel.

Technical customers looking for an important technical product or book will appreciate a hard-edged look. They require lots of information on the product, yet they also need a straight path to the purchase area. The colors should be strong and clear; bright, flashy colors can be helpful in generating excitement about your wonderful technical product.

Think about your own target market and review the sites visited by that market. You might find a site using an unexpected color effectively. You’ll certainly find some sites that are very poorly designed for their market. After you’ve trained your eye for a few hours, you can develop your own image of a good look for your well-targeted site.

Next month: Step seven in developing a business Web site.

–© 2004 Virginia Lawrence, Ph.D. SPAWN's Webmaster and Technology Editor, Virginia is a professional Web Developer and Online Marketing Consultant. She routinely places client sites on the first page of a Google search. Contact her at virginia@spawn.org or visit her Web site at http://www.cognitext.com.

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