Good Web Page Site Design for Small Companies in Southwest France

Good web page site design for Small Companies in Southwest France


This short Masterclass looks at one simple, but fundamental point. First impressions count.

Your website is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. Nevertheless when your business is online, people take similar cues about you as they would do in the real world - to make decisions about you and what you offer.

We have writen elsehwere in the Masterclass about having to FIND your website in the first place and let me remind you I believe this to be the FIRST task of a designer, not the last, nor the "missing" one! So let's assume people have just landed on your page and are now looking at what is in front of them.

Initial site behaviour for people browsing a website is that of a "Fast Food" mentality. People judge your book by the cover, I am afraid. You have to litterally "arrest" people long enough to then get them reading and participating. Miss this moment of "arrest" and they will simply bounce off your site again.

This is where a good design and good tools comes in. Imagine you are running a physical company. (Most business owners I know in the South West of France, around the Poitou-Charentes, Aquitaine, Limousin do run, primarily physical companies rather than overtly 'online' ones). So apply the same standards you would to your physical 'face' to the world to your online offering. What is it in the real world that puts you over the top? Think about this seriously. If you can't come up with the answer, what is going to put you over the top on-line? First impressions matter.

If the website is shabby, contains spelling errors, gramatical or punctuation errors, looks like a 5 minute job or lacks 'arrest' and 'content' then you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional, haven't thought about your message online and perhaps the reality is the same in the real world.

On the other hand, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, with arresting messages and compelling content. No spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes, you give your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business. No kidding - I reviewed a website for a client once where even her NAME had been mis-spelled by the designer. There were other spelling mistakes, missing full stops, no content. What had she paid for? Would casual website browsers even stay two seconds?

You should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "First impressions count" point.

I think the choice of design tools is also critical. You pay for what you get. A lot of "free" tools are lightweight and produce cheap-looking results (if you can work out how to use them at all). I highly recommend the Adobe suite of products. I use Adobe Website Premium CS4, which includes Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator Flash and Bridge (plus other really useful utilities). Website designers need tools of this quality. They are more pricey than some utilities, but you get what you pay for. And to find the current best deals on Adobe Products, you need only click on the links by this article.

About the Author: Richard Martin of Briquesetclics is a Certified Management Consultant and Accredited Internet Marketing Consultant of 20 years experience in IT. Briquesetclics offers exquisite eBusiness solutions, website design and Internet Marketing with English to French Translation to expat and French Comunities in Southwest France. He serves the Limousin, Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine regions and the cities of Limoges, Poitiers, Bergerac, Perigueux, Angouleme, Cognac, Bordeaux, Niort.

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