Website Design and Development –
Creating a Positive First Impression and Follow-Through

At CBS, website development is more than just creating a web presence for your company, firm or organization. It is building a highly impactful online representation, not just a glorified calling card. Your site should convey effectively what your organization stands for – that is its values, services and market reach, and what makes it special.

Your website must deliver, at the very minimum, a positive "First Impression," an introduction or reputation boost to your organization. But, if that's all that you want your website to do, then there are probably more than a few high school kids with graphics programs that could satisfy those minimal requirements.

However, if you are like most companies and organizations, you demand more of your website and web communications. You are looking for ways to better convey information and content though easily navigable means to reach and capture the imagination of your target audience. Once that is done, you might then like to either capture the name and E-mail address of a potential new customer or sell that customer something.

At CBS, we have both the design skills and marketing expertise to create a functional and attractive website that also speaks to your organization's larger goals and identity. We believe in communicating and working with our clients as a team. This provides us an insight into your business as you see it. We then can translate our knowledge of your goals into a highly-customized, full-featured and interactive website that will make you and your organization shine.

Even better, we do all of this at prices that are hard to beat anywhere and in a time framework that will both amaze and please you.

Give us a call, and we will be glad to tell you more about how CBS Systems' website design approach can make a difference for your business or organization.

Here are a dozen of the key quality elements that CBS Systems takes into consideration when we begin to design new websites for customers like you:

1) Minimizing your site load time and error messages - It does no good to draw customers to your website if the site takes too long to come up, has avoidable error messages or is not readable. All these problems say, "I am not ready to play in the big leagues." CBS helps you to solve this situation with fast-loading, optimized pages in any websites we design.

2) Clarity of Business or – Too many companies and organizations build websites where the message or purpose of the site is so vague as to befuddle many readers. Communication of your brand, business and purpose within a few seconds is crucial to a site's success. If a new viewer needs to go beyond the landing page to figure this out, the battle is lost. The best way to achieve this goal is through your headlines and sub-heads. "About Us" pages are useful only to add to the clarity, not bring it about initially.

3) Colors – The overall look of your website creates an inviting first impression on your visitors. You want the colors you choose for your site to come off as warm and welcoming but also professional. From there, if you wish to, you can choose the look to be traditional or contemporary and select colors consistent with that style.

4) Layout – A key design element in any website is the layout. The layout should be used to not only create an attractive design, but also to draw the visitors' attention to primary items or information that you wish to emphasize. The layout should make sense and be easy for visitors to follow. A good layout should be creative enough to stand out and be logical enough that it encourages browsing. It also must be search-engine-friendly and so easy to navigate that even a child could do it with confidence.

5) Flash Video– Flash elements in the home page and other site pages can be an effective way to create a positive impact on visitors. However, they must be used in moderation to avoid unnecessary "slickness" that makes the site slow to load, hard to read and not search-engine-friendly.

6) Typography/Fonts – Given the overall aging of the U.S consumer population, it is amazing how many websites are simply not readable without glasses. Trying to be contemporary by using too small or too light a font or bunching lines of type too close together is self-defeating. Composing lines of type that are too long can tire the reader. Usually 64-78 characters are about right for line length. Choose a font for your site that is easy to read and that conveys the image you are trying to communicate.

7) Graphics – High quality images, logos and photos are essential to building your identity and brand online. Whether you use your own photography and illustrations or rely on stock images, these design elements personalize your website and convey or re-enforce your message non-verbally. Should you need original graphic design work or quality stock photography, CBS can help as well. Our talented staff of graphic designers can create unique images or logos. We also can search our stable of stock photography houses to find just the image that you need.

8) Video and Audio – With an increasing number of Internet users adopting high speed connections, audio and video elements to websites will continue to grow in popularity. These tools are especially helpful in demonstrating products or making sales pitches. In fact, products with a supporting video can increase your conversion rate by as much as 500 percent! We can help you produce these elements affordably or seamlessly incorporate your video presentations into any site.

9) Testimonials and Quality Assurance Badges – Visitors to a website often don't know who you or your organization is initially. Testimonials and performance ratings from customers, ties to other well-known companies or organizations and customer assurance badges from companies like Google, VeriSign and BBB (the Better Business Bureau). This helps provide further confidence to any new potential customers who browse your website.

10) Tying Your Website to Your Reputation – Visitors to your site may have some familiarity with your organization through other advertising, online and offline recommendations, articles or blogs. We coordinate your website with your other advertising and can also help you with article, newsletter and blog marketing to create a fully synergistic campaign.

11) Content and Tone – Generally, the graphics and overall initial impression may pull a reader or potential customer into your website. However, it is the strength of the content that causes customers to linger and keeps them coming back. First-time visitors that discover your site and are impressed with the quality are more likely to leave a positive lasting impression. In addition, maintaining that positive impression also usually requires that the tone of the content be positive and upbeat (unless the site is intended to present negative commentary).

12) Reader Involvement – Creating forums and allowing trackbacks and visitor comments as part of your website or blog is an effective method of boosting reader involvement. These elements also encourage return visits. Make sure, however, that your traffic can sustain active back-and-forth exchanges and that qualifications for participation are not burdensome.

13) Protecting Your Site from Negative Elements – While we talk about all the things that your site should have to be attractive and competitive, there are other things that we caution you to avoid so that your site does not look overly commercialized, amateurish or tacky. We advise against:

-   "Welcome to Our Site" headlines (compared to a more impactful message).

-   Too many, inappropriate or poorly-placed ads.

-   Irritating pop-ups or animated ads that violate the browsing habits of the reader.

-   Low-quality clip art or animated GIFs (e.g. smiley faces).

-   Hit counters.

-   "Dated-looking" graphics (unless nostalgia is your aim).

At CBS Systems, we would be more than glad to prepare a quote for building a new website for you and your organization, keeping these and other quality considerations in mind. There is no obligation or cost to you for this service.

If you already have a website that may have become dated, needs some work or is not providing you the kind of commerce you need, we would be glad to provide you a
free review and evaluation of that site.