For the majority of
customers trying out a new product the companies web site is the first
impression. When creating a new web site for a company researching the
competition is a good place to start. In the Designing Web Sites tutorial by
Sue Jenkins she talks about key points you should look at when checking out the
competitors web sites. I will be looking at how it could negatively affect the
potential customers opinion of the company.
The first topic is doing a
web search for keywords of the competitors. If you skip this step you may leave
out words that will lead a customer to your new site. Knowing how a customer
will search for you can help you with content descriptions and keywords. Next
is narrowing the search to your local area. If you only do national or regional
searches you may miss what the company down the street is doing and end up
looking to much like theirs or having too similar of a product/service.
Sue Jenkins goes on to talk
about setting site goals on having a plan for how the site will look and what
it will contain. If you don’t stop to think about who your target audience is
and what they will be looking for on your website you may choose the wrong
color scheme or offensive wording. Next is content, if you skip the data
checklist and just jump in to building the site you may forget some information
you wanted to include. Taking the time before to hit all these steps before you
post your site could save you from some professional embarrassment and time on
rework.
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