35% of visitors fail to achieve their goal when they visit Las Vegas websites! By following two simple rules, you really can increase your web revenue by a third or more!

Respected website usability researcher, Jakob Nielsen, published results of his latest study. His test subjects visited over 139 websites and on average they failed to find what they were looking for about 35% of the time. Shockingly, 37% of users couldn not even find company location details and contact information.

What was truly surprising was that users did not give up… they found the information they were after, but they found it at a competitor’s web site.

So how exactly do you stop potential customers falling into the hands of your business competitors? Nielsen is right when he suggests user research. Yes, it is imperative that know what your users need and are looking for at your Las Vegas web site. But what he does not say is how to structure your website so it meets your users needs.

There are two main rules to follow:

1. Write first and build later
2. Write to your customer

The real message on most Las Vegas web sites is in the writing and the writing should determine the structure.

This is not the case for most local businesses, however. Most of the time, the writing is merely an afterthought and they design their website first, then try to fit the writing to the structure they have created. This makes no sense. You should not decide on a structure, then change the message to fit.

For a truly user-friendly website, you should plan what you want to say and communicate before you create the website and even write all the pages out before desigming or building.

So how do you decide what to write? Most customers will want to know the basics:

• What do you do exactly?
• What benefit do you offer them with your service or product?
• Why should they choose your service or product over a competitor?
• How much does your service or product cost?
• How can they contact you and where is your location?

Your Las Vegas website has to convey a lot of information and you must use your home page real estate wisely. Your website visitor should be able to find ALL relevant information on the home page (without scrolling) in a single window. So you’re probably thinking now ‘how am I going to fit it all in a single window?’ That’s where planning out your copy for the home page comes in, just do it carefully.

Your web site is an important marketing tool and is a very cost-effective way to communicate and find new customers. Remember, however, your competitors are doing the same thing. It’s important that your writing is clearly written and short and to the point, especially with your competitors’ web sites in mind.

8 More Reasons to Write Specifically for Your Audience

1. There are over 550 billion documents on the web
2. Every day another 8 million are added
3. Visitors take so long trying to find information that it costs organisations $750 billion annually! (A.T. Kearney, Network Publishing study)
4. Reading a web page from a monitor is 25% slower than reading from paper. (Sun Microsystems)
5. Helpful content develops interaction and website loyalty.
6. 79% of users scan read when online (Sun Microsystems)
7. Information gathering is the most common use of the Internet – 73% (American Express survey)
8. 48% of people use the Internet to find work-related information as opposed to 7% who use magazines. (Lyra Research)

As a busy las vegas company or business owner, there are only so many things you could do in a day, especially things where some element of skills is required. Designing your own website is one such activity, one which should really be designed by a professional Las Vegas website design company (we like to keep business local). If you are not a professional designer and developer, you should leave it in a professional’s hands, and a professional web design firm (like my company Perkolate.com) will work closely with you to ensure it meets your marketing goals and is properly and professionally designed.

Here are the key reasons you should hire a local Las Vegas website design company:

It’s Technical – Leave it to the Experts

Designing websites is definitely not something that just anyone can do. Sure, there are do-it-yourself websites out on the internet, but they have a lot of limitations. You neeed a professional company that can help you shape the design and flow of your website. You need a company that is experienced in specific coding languages like PHP, ASP, HTML and professional softwares like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash. If you are not familiar with these languages and softwares, you may well have to learn them, because without them, you cannot even think of starting to design a website.

Time is of Essence – Don’t Waste Yours

If you’re the average business owner or run a company, do you really have the time to be trying to build and launch your own web site? Rushing through things at this stage, even if it is assumed that you have the appropriate skills for web designing could mean you making a complete mess of your website. That is why I recommend that you hire a professional web design company right here in Las Vegas who will get everything done quickly and effectively.

More Cost-Effective In the Long Run – Don’t Do It Yourself

If you hired someone in house, you would have to cover all of the costs associated with hiring an employee. That employee most likely will not have all of the marketing, strategy, programming and development skills you might need for your corporate web site. Or if you are trying to build the website yourself, I ask you, wouldn’t your time be more wisely spent doing what you do best in running and growing your business and leaving a professional web design company to do what they do best and in your best interested? In most cases, working with a professional web company works out to be the most cost-effective option.

For more information on professional website design and development solutions, visit my company’s website at www.perkolate.com. (We are located in Summerlin)

Cheers!