Content
It’s actually very simple. Fundamentally, your website is about providing basic information to those of us who want to use your services. We, as your future customers, want to know who you are , what products or services you are selling, and where we can buy them or how we can access them. In some cases, especially if you have a new, unusual or rare product, we might also want to know why we need the product in the first place.
So how do I organize this information?
Let me show you, using a fictitious client named Mary who owns yarn shop in town. Mary has noticed that her younger clients all have started to use the internet to look for new patterns, buy exotic wools, and get cheap knitting needles. She has decided that it might be a good time to show people in Halifax that they don’t have to send away for the products, because she has them right here in town at a comparable price. So she decides that she wants to set up her own website so that people in town looking for her service can find her.
How should Mary layout her content?
These are the sections that Mary should include in her website:
A Welcome Page – Here she lists something about her store, herself, as well as her hours and her location. The welcome page serves as a summary of her business and should be at least 250 words. It is also a good idea to include any store news on this page: a mention of what products have come in, new store hours, holiday specials, and so on.
A Products Page – Here Mary lists all the brand names of the products that she sells. She could also list some of the items that she knows are popular in the knitting world, so that if customers search for “Spanish Wool in Halifax,” her name would come up. If Mary has a long list of items, she should probably divide them up in a few pages. This can easily be done by the web designer.
Location Page – Here Mary lists her address and her store hours. The web designer will likely include a map or a link to Google Maps to guide people to her store. It’s also a good idea to mention on which public transit routes the store is located, for potential customers who don’t have a car.
About the Store and Owner – Here Mary has a few paragraphs about the history of the store as well as about herself. If Mary had any special qualifications (Former design assistant to Gautier, for example) she should list them here.
Contact Page – Similar to the location page (the two pages can be combined), this page lists all of Mary’s relevant contact for the use of customers and suppliers.
That’s it!. Mary has created the basic content for her new site. Later on she might want to expand the site to include her knitting tips, links to pattern sites, and so on, but for now she has something that she can publish on her new site.
Naturally, Mary’s site is pretty basic and in all likelihood, your businesses site will need to be more elaborate. Still, you can organize the content for your future site along similar lines. A website is a very flexible advertising medium that can be expanded with very little effort and cost. The important thing is to sit down and get started.
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