The Case For Giving Visitors What They Expect From Your Small Business Website

If you're online at all, you have seen that most websites follow a standard design layout:

• Logo in the upper left corner
• Primary navigation under the logo
• Content on the left
• Sidebar on the right 

A place for everything and everything in its place.

You don't want your small business website to be bland or not stand out, but there are some valid reasons why you should give visitors what they have come to expect.

We read right to left

First off, the logo should be considered the be all end all branding piece of your small business website. It is on all of your business materials and you want it to look the same all the time. It creates a sense of continuity that visitors like and come to understand as credibility. It's important to stick with that.

When the visitor arrives you want them to know they are on YOUR SITE, which makes placement of that logo so extremely important. Your business website has approximately 5 seconds to make an impression - you gotta stick it! Plus, research has shown that the top left quadrant is noticed faster and so it makes a huge impression. Stick it... did I mention STICK IT?

Help me I'm lost...

Most visitors are used to seeing the business logo of a website in the upper left, it's expected to be there. Visually, it's comforting like hot cocoa on a cold day and gives the visitor the warm fuzzies - which hopefully result in a sale/lead/contract signed. If that logo is missing from the top left position, it can have a jarring effect on visitors, which we never want. Never.

Oh there's the navigation system

Menus are the same. The standard menu exists on the horizontal and lies directly under the logo, in the real estate called the header. Don't make it hard for your visitor to find what they want because they will leave. Period.

Same for content - State your case in readable fonts (no white or red text on black, I beg you) because if anything distracts from what you want the visitor to do, then you are doing it wrong.

To sum it up, it's possible to rock an amazing design for your website while following the informal 'standard of design'. A good designer can create that wow factor without resorting to what amounts to website shock and awe. Remember, your website should have a purpose (phone call, fill out contact form, make a purchase, etc.). It isn't really the time to color outside of the lines when it comes to getting (and keeping) a visitors interest.