I recently read an article about how to select a web designer for your small business. The author made the very good point that you must be very involved with your web site because no one will know your business as well as you do.
That’s very true. At the same time, you are unlikely to be an expert on how web users view content, search for what they’re looking for and use a typical small business web site. That’s why it’s most efficient to hire a partner to assist you.
This article explained how you need to have an opening statement and mission statement for your front page, so that you can tell your visitors who you are and what you’re trying to do.
Right there, I saw a problem.
You see, good web designers don’t just make a pretty framework for you to pour every bit of text you have about your business into. They should be usability experts, too, and understand what your potential customers are looking for on your site. If you think that the first thing a potential customer wants to know about is your mission statement, you may need to rethink what your company offers.
A web site visitor needs to know what you offer, why you’re the best company to do business with, and what the next step is for working with you. Anything that detracts from this or buries the reader in mundane details like the history of your company is secondary. (Sure, put your mission statement is on your site. Just don’t expect your visitor to be making that his or her first priority, and organize accordingly.) If your web site is well organized and usable, the visitor who wants to find the names of your management team can do so.