Zoyo works with its clients to create usable web sites. Not just pretty web sites or informative web sites, but web sites that are acutally useful to the audience.

We are lucky to work with some great web developers, including Michiko Swiggs, who not only offers precise technical expertise but a great sense for design and information management.

But before we even get to the development stage, Zoyo helps clients do the critical thinking about the user experience. Here are three steps we help you through:

Step 1: Clarify your goals

The first step is to clarify your information. You need to understand clearly exactly what your goals are. o you want people to give you their email address, purchase a product, or generally come to the conclusion that your company offers expertise? After they had their web site for three or four months, one client asked, “Why aren’t I capturing many leads on my site?” I had to answer, “Because that was not one of your goals when we build the site.” A web site that generates leads looks and functions very differently than a web site that simply states company capabilities. Set out your goals, and we will build the site accordingly.

Step 2: Think through the user experience

This is actually way more difficult to do than it seems. You have to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. This takes a lot of discipline to get out of the “business manager” way of thinking and become humble enough to imagine yourself as a (clueless) member of your audience.

They don’t know your brand names. They don’t know your lingo. They use regular wrods and are trying to solve real world problems. They are trying to get through the day and maybe, just maybe, your products or services will answer their needs. They’ll come to that conclusion faster if you consider their needs before building the site.

List the  tasks your audience might want to do. Think about the ways they’ll assume to go about achieving those goals. Now, make it easy for them to do that.

How? Use regular words  (‘buy tickets’, ‘our ingredients,’ etc.) and make sure every word on your site is accessed by the search box.

Step 3: Think about search engines from the start

You need to make your web site attractive to the people in your audience. But you also need to make your site attractive to search engines. They are really your main audience, because your customers go to search engines to find you… so you better be there. How do you make your site attractive to search engines? It’sa compliated dance but here’s a start:

• Know your key words and seed your site with them

• Make sure you use the metatags and SEO tools built into your content managemnet system

•Make sure all of your URLs are clearly mappable phrases and  keywords

• Submit your sitemap to the search engines and have a sitemap page

• Get influential sites to write articles about you, thereby creating links back to your site

• Set up Google Analytics and start using it… and change your site constantly depending on the feedback you get

It’s simple, but takes a bit of guidance

Your web site is your most important marketing tool and you should treat it as such. Build it properly, watch the way your customers use it, and constantly make adjustments according to what’s popular among your users. It’s not so much a big job as a job that must be maintained regularly. For more help, contact Zoyo Branding.