What's Your Website Personality?

Personality is what makes us unique. Like humans, every website has a personality. Also, like humans, there are many factors that contribute to your websites personality.   Your site design and content are two factors that are important in creating a strong first impression.

DESIGN

Your website design contributes greatly to creating the first impression for your visitors.  This includes the colors, layout, fonts and imagery.  Imagine if you could wear your website to a networking event.   What kind of impression do you think you would make?

1. Style:  What’s your color palette?  Are you wearing earth tones?  Subtle neutrals?  Classic colors with a bit of flair?  Or do you appear as if you’ve just left a Cirque du Soleil show … and you were the feature act?
2. Appearance:  Are you well put together or a disheveled mess?   Are you wearing your clothing in an unexpected fashion (ex: wearing your pants backwards or not wearing any pants at all)?
3. Bells & Whistles:  Are you wearing lots of accessories?  Or none at all?
4. The X Factor:  Are you wearing an outfit straight “off the rack” adding little “flair” of your own?  Or are you wearing ‘one of a kind’, custom made attire?

Generally there aren’t any wrong answers.   However, you will want to consider your target audience and their expectations when evaluating your design personality.  If you’re selling widgets to accountants, it may not be effective to have a circus-inspired website, unless you are bound & determined to stand by that brand because well … you’re THAT GUY.   To create a strong presence, it is important that your website design is compatible with you and your business brand.

CONTENT

The purpose of website content is to communicate information to your visitors.  The language and tone used in your website content will convey a specific personality to your visitors.   Let’s imagine that you’re introduced to a potential customer in person and they ask “Who are you and can you help me?”  Imagine that you respond by reading the information on your home page.   What kind of impression do you think you would make?

1. Have you said too much?  Too little?
2. Did you introduce yourself or did you start with a sales pitch?
3. Did you ask the customers any questions about them or their needs?
4. Did you express well focused ideas?  Or did you ramble about 3 or 4 unrelated ideas, products or services?
5. What was your tone?  Straight-forward?  Blunt?  Informal?
6. Did the potential customer not hear anything said because your outfit was too distracting?

As they say “content is king.”   You lose the ability to connect with your visitors by saying the wrong thing or by not saying the right things.   You want to create a connection with your visitors that makes them want to learn more about you and your business.  Otherwise, you’re just another face in the crowd with a sales pitch.  When writing your content, be sure to think like your target customer.  How much of your content is dedicated to customer-focused content?  How much of your content is dedicated to tooting your own horn?   You certainly want to sell yourself and your business, but not at the risk of disengaging your customers.   So, who is the focus of your conversation?  You?  Or your customers?

HOMEWORK

Evaluate your existing website.  Is your website design compatible with your actual personality or business brand?   Does your website content convey your ideas in a manner similar to how you would present them in person?

This is only the first step to building a website with an authentic personality.   Your website is just one of the tools that you will use to engage your customers and to facilitate an ongoing relationship.

Make a strong first impression.

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

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The Signoff – When is Done Done

It is Done!

NOTE: This the eighth segment of a 9-part series on how to create a successful small business website. If you’re planning to create a new small business website or enhance an existing website, this series will help you improve your chances for success. Step 8 involves approving the final product for implementation.

During the testing phase, you should have accomplished the following:

1. Resolved all glitches and technical issues that prevent your visitors from using the site as ‘intended’.
2. Updated the website to resolve any user interface (layout, functionality) issues that are critical to your site’s success. For example, if during the testing phase, you learn that the most of your test users had a difficult time finding or using your website navigation area, you should definitely resolve this issue before ‘going live.’ These are the issues that cause your visitors to leave the site (due to confusion, error or annoyance).
3. Developed a listing of potential future enhancements. You are certain to receive feedback on features that are not included in this initial implementation. Create a “wish list” containing these items and plan to revisit them when you begin to plan for your next website enhancement.

Now that you’ve completed the testing phase and received valuable feedback from your test group, it is time to signoff on the project and schedule the launch date. The signoff process will vary depending on your website team or developer. However, you should always state in writing that you approve of the final product and schedule the actual date that you would like to “go live”.

NOTE: “Go live” is basically a phrase to state that you’re ready to launch the website and make it available for public viewing.

Resist the urge to launch the site if there are “loose ends” or other items to be completed. “Loose ends” should either be completed during the development and testing phases or considered for the next phase.

It is done. And it is not perfect. Sounds weird, but it’s true. If you’re having trouble checking the completion box because of the pesky wish list of cool & suggested features, you will be happy to learn that most successful ventures are works in progress. And if you’ve performed the following tasks, you’re ahead of the curve and on the path to success:

• Documented realistic goals & objectives for this phase of the project. This will help you target your marketing efforts more effectively.
• Resolved any technical glitches or issues that prevent an effective user experience. You want to maintain a high level of quality.
• If you have stayed within or close to the original scope of your project, you should be within your budget and near your expected deadline. This is important to ensuring that you’re not borrowing resources that could be used during the next enhancement phase.

Once you’ve issued the final signoff, you have stated that the project is complete. The next step is measuring the outcome of your project. Congratulations! It is done.

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

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Your Web Project: Testing & Customer Feedback

TESTING & CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

NOTE: This the seventh segment of a 9-part series on how to create a successful small business website. If you’re planning to create a new small business website or enhance an existing website, this series will help you improve your chances for success. Step 7 involves testing your final product.

Testing is an important phase for technology projects. The testing phase ensures that everything is working “as expected” and as identified in your project requirements. The technical team responsible for developing (coding) your website will test their code and interfaces for glitches and other issues. However, you should also perform some testing of your own. Be sure to carve out enough time to review the work completely. Revisit your requirements document to ensure that all requirements were met.

Since the visitor experience is the most important, you should also enlist a small group of people to review the site. Ideally you would include a few current & past customers. During Step 1 (Do Your Homework), it was recommended that you “survey your current and past customers regarding the features that they feel are most important to include on your future website or similar websites in your industry”. If you performed this step, you should enlist the same group to review the final product. Be sure to provide your test group with a brief document describing the site, as well as descriptions of any features and enhancements. This will give them some perspective regarding your intended final product. You will want to ask questions regarding:

1. Their overall experience using the site (layout, look & feel, functionality).
2. If they experienced any technical issues or glitches while accessing the site.
3. Their feedback on each new feature/enhancement.
4. Their recommendations for future enhancements.
5. If they feel that the new site or new site enhancement is an improvement and if it increases their ability to do business with you.

Compile your feedback and the feedback of your test group and submit it to your website team/developer. For this phase of your project, you will want your technical team to focus on feedback received on user experience (question #1) and technical glitches experienced while testing (question #2). Issues related to questions #4 – 5 are for your records. You should use this information to plan the next phase of your project. If your test group requests future enhancements, don’t make the mistake in trying to implement the enhancements at this time unless you’re willing to utilize additional resources and time to implement the new features. If you decide that new features identified during your testing phase are important and should be implemented before you “go live”, meet with your website team to develop a new budget and timeline for implementing the new items (See Preventing Website Project Headaches & Frustrations).

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

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How to link to a recommended website

If your website includes a listing of links to recommended websites, take the time to provide the following information to your website visitors:

1. The title/name of the website/organization
2. A brief description of the website
3. A reason for the recommendation (i.e. how does this external website benefit your website visitors and existing customers?)
4. The actual website address (www.xyz.com)

If your recommended website listing is extensive, for increased usability, you should organize the links by industry and/or purpose.  Providing more detail about the websites that you’re linking to gives your recommendations increased credibility. Also, remember that your site visitors are real people. If someone walks into your physical business location, you wouldn’t slide them a post-it note with a www address on it .. not without some explanation.

ONGOING REVIEW TIP: Be sure to check your recommended links often to ensure that the websites are still active.

Kishau Rogers

Kishau Rogers is the President and Founder of Websmith Group, a web application development company. Her mission is to connect businesses with the information and technologies necessary to meet their goals EFFECTIVELY. Kishau Rogers holds a Computer Science Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and has over sixteen years of experience, which includes web, application and database development. Kishau also speaks, blogs, and writes articles to educate organizations and entrepreneurs on resources and best practices for ensuring effective, dynamic and innovation web solutions.

Website - Twitter - More Posts