Website Design

By Rick Frishman - Aug 22 , 2008

The quality of your site—how it looks and works and the content it provides—is crucial.

It can attract and interest visitors or turn them off. And since your site will be targeting the media and publishing professionals, who are experienced Internet users and will be looking for specific information, it has to be great! It must quickly give them access to what they want, or they might lose patience and turn elsewhere.

Before you design your website, visit many other websites.

Examine:

• How they’re laid out
  
• The type of content they provide
  
• How they’re organized
  
• If they’re easy to use
  
• How they work

Ask:

• Do they look good?
  
• Are they easy to navigate?
  
• Do they have a focus?
  
• Do they provide good information?
  
• Do they have lots of links and do all those links work?
  
• Are they trying to give you information or sell you something?

When you find sites you like, list the features that most appeal to you and that you could include on your site. Also list the features that you would want to avoid. If you hire a website designer, give him or her a copy of each of those lists.

Come up with a great URL, which is also called a domain name or website address, and register it. For your address, use your book title or a variation of it that people can easily remember. For example, the URL for Beneath the Cover is www.beneaththecover.com. Consider registering common misspellings of your domain so that browsers can visit your site even when they misspell its address. Check the availability of and register your URL at www.rickscheapdomains.com.

Identify the target audience for your website, the group or groups you most want to impress. For the purposes of this book, let’s say that the media is your primary target and so you should build your website with that in mind.

Review your book publicity tools. Think about each item and determine which of them should be included on your website. I divide those items into two groups: primary and secondary tools. Some of the primary tools are your press release, biography, photograph, newsletter, promotional materials, and questions and answers. The secondary tools include articles, brochures, contests, endorsements, fact sheets, graphics, lists of topics for the media, quotations, reviews, and stories about the book. All those tools could work well on your site.

Register your website with search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Register it under the subject of your book as well as every subtopic included in it and all related subjects. Think of every possible category that you could include because the more categories you provide, the more hits you may receive. Register each of your products and/or services. Create links with other sites and strategic partners.

Important!

A website must make an instant impression. The media is extremely busy and needs to make an immediate decision if you’re right for its show, article, et cetera. When it visits your site, it wants to get a quick understanding of your book, see where you’ve appeared, and examine your credentials.
As a media personality who researches loads of websites daily, the first thing I look for is a link to the press link or press contact. If I can immediately connect, it helps me do my job. Instant connectivity is very important because the media is also working on time-sensitive topics.
File and save all your passwords and your content and webmaster information, unless you built your own site, because webmasters move and go out of business. Also, copyright your site.

Website Sections

Your website should include a home page and at least a few other sections. Every page of each section should provide:

• Links to all the sections of your site
  
• A copyright notice
  
• The cover image of your book
  
• Your contact information
  
• A link for visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or e-zine if you have one

Visitors should be able to access each section by clicking on that section name, and consider making certain content downloadable.