Whether you have a do-it-yourself web site or a high-end site costing thousands of dollars, you expect a return on your investment of time and money. A good web site will help to build your business or organization. An aviation web site does not have to be perfect or even expensive to be good. Successful sites are focused, findable, viewable, clear, and consistent.
1. Focused. Before reading on, please take a moment to jot down the reason for your organization's existence, its unique characteristics, and the products and services that you offer. The most important of these are key messages to the viewers of your web site.
Now take a look at your home page. That page should include your key messages -- the important things you want site viewers to know and remember. Most organizations will have two to five key messages. Too many messages will confuse your viewers. If the content of your home page and your key messages do not agree, you and your webmaster have work to do to give your site the correct focus.
Next look at the links or buttons that take viewers from the home page to other pages on your site -- your menu system or navigation links. All of these should be related to your key messages as well. (Exceptions: news flashes, directions to your location, request for information forms, and contact information.) Browse to the pages linked from your home page. Each of those pages should have more detail about one of your key messages. Consider deleting or revising pages that are not focused on one of those messages.
2. Findable. A web site that no one reaches cannot be successful. Unless you will be advertising your web address through some other media, your site needs to be listed in aviation directories and indexed by the major search engines -- Google™, Yahoo®, and MSN® search.
You can test whether your site has been indexed by searching for the name of your organization in each of the major engines. In addition to a link to your home page, you should see links to your listings in the aviation directories in the first 20 or 30 results. (New sites are not listed immediately and should submit the address of their site to the search engines.)
A second test is to search for your product or service in your geographic area. For example, a New York school might search for "Albany flight training." Again, you should see your link in the first few results.
If your site is not appearing or is poorly ranked, there are many steps you and your webmaster can take -- enough for several more articles. Importantly, listing your site in online aviation directories helps in two ways. You will gain viewers directly as a result of those listings, and some search engines will improve your rank based on the number of links to your site. (Need a link to a list of directories here.)
A word of caution. Attempting to fool the search engines can hurt your ranking or even result in your site being banned. If you decide to use a service that promises to improve your search engine ranking, choose with care. Even the most reputable services do very little that you can't do yourself in a couple of hours.
3. Viewable. To be viewable, a site must be compatible with varying screen sizes, connection speeds, and browser software.
The fortunate among us have large-screen monitors and high speed connections to the Internet. However, about one third of your site's viewers have a screen size of 800 x 600 pixels and very few have sizes above 1024 x 768. Three quarters of home Internet connection are still via dial-up lines.
Test your site for smaller screen sizes by browsing to your home page and then entering "javascript:resizeTo(800,600)" in your browser's address window. If your key messages are not visible in this smaller window without scrolling down or to the right, consider a change in your home page design.
Even if you have a dial-up connection, you may not know how long it takes for your home page to load for a first time viewer. Browsers cache a page's images so that they load more quickly on a second visit. However, there are many free services on the web that will test your pages and report the download time at various connection speeds. As a rule of thumb, viewers click away if a page is not visible in 20 to 30 seconds (less for broadband-connected users).
While Microsoft's Internet Explorer remains the dominant browser, the market share for Mozilla's Firefox has grown to about 20 percent of all viewers in just three months since its release. Download a copy and test that your site looks the same in Firefox as it does in Explorer. (You may even decide to use Firefox as your browser.)
4. Clear. At a clear web site, it is easy for viewers to navigate between pages and to find information. Except on the home page, only one key message is emphasized per page. Pages display intended and needed content, and are up to date. Graphics are used to help convey page content and make the site more interesting. (Graphics should not be distracting or overwhelming.) Contact information is readily available. A call to action is present where appropriate.
For users of online aviation management systems, appropriate use is made of the features of that system. Links to event calendars, news items, and mailing list subscriptions should be readily available.
In general, a clear site is easy to use and understand, and gets the results that you want. For example, a prospective flight school customer should find detailed information about flight training easy to locate and not more than one click away from the home page. In addition, that page should encourage the prospective customer to take action right away -- "reserve your discovery flight now." On a flying club site, the easy-to-locate page with benefits, requirements, and costs of membership should also include "apply for membership now."
5. Consistent sites have a constant theme throughout, pages at the same navigation level have similar weight, and the overall look and feel of the site is pleasing to the eye. Consistent sites should welcome users. Web sites with to many different themes, dizzying animations, graphics that are confusing turn users away.
You can check the consistency of your sites theme by reviewing the pages in your site. Do all the same pages have the same header, menu, footer, and colors? If not, your site is not consistent.
Undoubtedly, you have found that your web site is not perfect. None are. However, applying the five attributes will make your aviation web site more successful. If you site does not have the five key attributes, work with your webmaster to plan enhancements or (shameless sales pitch) contact my company, MyFBO.com for help.
Thanks for information.
many interesting things
Celpjefscylc
Posted by: celpjefscycle | January 11, 2008 at 05:51 PM