Forum Moderators: phranque
SITE AIMS
The aim of the site is to provide potential customers with enough information to support a decision to contact us and book the service. Secondary aims are to create a professional profile for casual visitors and to provide confirmed clients with data which is useful once they have booked.
Obviously, If all other factors are equal, I'd like to have the design conducive to decent search engine rankings.
DILEMMA
I've realised that I could probably fit all the data onto about 4 or 5 pages, or I could spread it over 8 or 9. But which is right?
It might be impossible to comment on this without seeing the site, but I'd like to know whether its advisable to keep things concise so that clients are less likely to miss useful information, or spread the data out, with appropriate linking, so that people aren't bombarded with irrelevent data.
EXAMPLE
As an example: the multimedia content is mp3s and videos. Do I put a little thumbnail/link/media player somewhere static on every page, or do I give it it's own "multimedia" page?
Should I fill the pages with internal links, to allow users to flit about like butterflies?
Any advice on how to approach this issue?
I would suggest that you read through these threads:
It has made me think about what links to put on my main nav menu, to begin with.
I think about what customers actually ask me when they phone, and the two things that they ask about are "availability and price". Those are two things I can't automatically provide through a website, but I'm wondering whether it's a cheat to have a link for these things on the main nav menu? It could link to the FAQ section that specifically related to availability & price.
Is it more likely to annoy people to get this kind of information:
"AVAILABILITY:
To check availability please phone 1234 567 8910. It is very likely that we are able to provide x for your date, but because the calendar is being updated regularly throughout the day, the best way to check is to give us a call or email."
"PRICES:
Prices for our service vary greatly depending on your specific requirements. We can offer a number of flexible options, ranging from £____ for smaller events to £_,___ for our full corporate package. Please call us to get a specially tailored quote."
Do you think this would be sufficient?
What about a contact form that allowed you to select your date (and even your budget) and then clients might be more encouraged to contact us?
Any thoughts on this would be gratefully received.
[edited by: Sorry_In_Advance at 3:35 pm (utc) on Oct. 30, 2006]
There are plenty of calendar apps out there you could incorporate into your site. This could work both ways for you. You would have to find a way to present it in a way that makes it seem like you're flexible, but not completely free all the time.
You mentioned the phone to call for prices. Look at cool VoIP tools that let the user call from the webpage if they like (i.e., Skype). Any kind of gimmick like that might entice the user to get in touch.
A well designed contact form is something to spend time testing out. You want to get information in the format you can use, but you don't want the form to be too tedious. Consider a simple inquiry form and a more detailed one for those who are more serious.
