Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites (Paperback)

by Kevin Potts (Author)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The best business websites serve their readers with strong content, well-architected design, and a focus on usability, readability, and accessibility. This book covers the fundamental aspects of building a website that works for the company, not against it. It covers the essentials of strong copywriting, and then dedicates several chapters to designing user-centric About, Products and Services, and Support sections.

Your visitors come to your site because they are interested in your business and are therefore potential customers. This book covers taking advantage of that traffic by expanding the companys story through a corporate blog and using testimonials, case studies, and other third-party validation to reinforce the marketing message. With this knowledge you will be able to create and maintain a highly professional, polished business site.

While a pleasing website is essential for any modern business, creating it is only a small piece of the online strategy. This book also discusses search engine optimization, using e-mail and RSS to communicate with customers and prospects, and advertising the corporate domain with paid search placement, online banners, text links, and more. The primary theme is using your corporate website to market the business effectively, from designing intelligent product pages to writing compelling e-mail newsletters. This book explores those ideas and offers compelling advice on how to take full advantage of the Web as a marketing medium.

In this book you'll learn how to:

• Implement best practices in corporate web design, with a focus on common sections such as About, Products and Services, Customer Support, and more
• Use e-mail and RSS marketing to stay in touch with customers and prospects
• Apply simple and effective search engine optimization techniques to push your website higher in search engine results
• Advertise the site through e-mail, paid search placement, banner ads, and more
• Write professional, accessible, and usable pages to make your site available to everyone

Summary of Contents

• Chapter 1: Overview
• Chapter 2: Content
• Chapter 3: Accessibility
• Chapter 4: Architecture and Navigation
• Chapter 5: The Homepage
• Chapter 6: The About Section
• Chapter 7: Products and Services
• Chapter 8: Independent Validation
• Chapter 9: The Corporate Blog
• Chapter 10: Customer Support
• Chapter 11: Contingency Planning
• Chapter 12: Legalese
• Chapter 13: Search Engine Optimization
• Chapter 14: Outbound Marketing
• Chapter 15: Online Advertising
• Appendix: Resources

About the Author
Kevin has been working on the web for almost ten years, having started his career designing his first employer\'s website with Netscape and Notepad. He has spent the bulk of his design career working in-house as both a graphic designer and internal web developer. Coupled with years of freelance and agency work, Kevin has created dozens of websites for businesses of all sizes in an array of industries.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: friends of ED (August 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590598393
• ISBN-13: 978-1590598399
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #150,726 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable checklist of essential tools & techniques for business web design, November 11, 2007

By	Adrienne Rice Adams "Web and graphic designer" (Lopez Island, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites" is the first book on web design to focus on integrating marketing, customer service, accessibility, and web standards into the design process. It's an accessible, clear, and up-to-date resource on best practices for modern business- and service-oriented websites.

Kevin Potts begins the book by pointing out that the internet is now an essential medium for businesses of all shapes and sizes; at the same time, customers are more sophisticated than in the early days of the internet, and have little patience for poorly designed websites. In order for a company to present an effective presence on the web, it "must deliver beyond customer expectations; better content, sharper design, smarter architecture, and more proactive communication and interaction are all components of websites that produce exceptional results for corporations."

In the first chapter, the author begins by outlining what a company's website should be doing:

* Marketing, selling products, & promoting services
* Providing customer support & company information
* Creating branding & market awareness

He then covers planning, researching, and selling the design (or redesign) within the company, then moves on to a brief overview of platforms and technologies.

The rest of the book proceeds to show the designer how to create an effective and compelling site for his or her client. He covers content creation, accessibility, architecture & navigation; essential sections of a company website such as the Homepage, About page, Products, and Support pages; error pages, print-friendly pages, legal considerations, and SEO; email marketing, RSS, and advertising campaigns and metrics.

This book is an amazing collection of diverse information presented in a clear and concise fashion. It's not intended as an in-depth treatment of any of the subjects he covers--rather it's an invaluable checklist of essential tools and considerations for designing a top-notch company website.

"Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites" has become a valuable addition to my reference library, and it is one that I know I will reach for first when I am planning a new or redesigned business or service website.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highest Recommendation--Current, Accessible, Complete, October 11, 2007

By	Stephen E. Adams "cloudislands.com" (Lopez Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites," by Kevin Potts,was first brought to my attention by my wife, Adrienne, a website designer whose business, Cloud Islands, develops business identity plans for internet marketing.

She recommended it to me as an extraordinarily useful text. I've found it particularly readable, including the chapters on platforms, content management, standards-based development, and other topics which normally are either over my head or simply difficult to read.

Potts' chapters on content and SEO are cogent, provide excellent examples, and are as useful as any I've ever read. The book is only several months old, so he is even using illustrations from Google Analytics new web configurations.

It's published by [...], which is a publishing house run by and for web designers.

I don't often recommend books for other people's professional libraries, but this one is proving very useful to me.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for Business Owners, May 30, 2008

By	Lawrence Salberg (Melbourne, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although this book sounds like a "tech" book, it is far from it. It only contains about two pages of actual code total. I highly recommend this book for anyone who runs a small to medium-sized business where you interact with your web design company directly, or any executive who has to interface with the web development team.

It could also be good for web designers who have been AWOL for the last half-decade or more, or people new to the business who want to learn. Although you won't learn any HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, you will learn stuff that no one else has published in one handy volume. Great for a day at the park - leave your laptop at home. I've written a far-more extensive review on my blog, so search for my name if you feel the need to read really long reviews before buying, but if I can save you some time, just take my word for it and buy it if the above describes you.