News / Archive / What's in a website?

Sumac has recently joined a business networking group in London's “City Fringe”. The idea is that business people meet to exchange ideas and contacts over café lattes, canapés or aperitifs (depending on the time of day).

So, as you can imagine, I've done quite a bit of talking about websites lately. Whilst I generally take the approach that a “Site by Sumac” tends to be custom-built to our clients specific requirements, I've found that much of the ground covered is fairly common, for example:

• Visual Impact - A decision is made pretty quickly about a company and the credibility of its business from the website – perhaps even before reading the first word. It's very important therefore to think about the business branding, the colours, the fonts, the visual layout and the images used on the site.
• Message - Once the visual impact has been established, visitors need to be sure they are at a relevant site. This is usually done by a succinct message that describes your business and what can be expected of your site.
• Navigation - To go further, the visitor must be confident that they can find their way around quite easily. People can be helped by the website using well thought-out navigation. Where a lot of text is used, it's useful to have a site “search” facility.
• Accessibility - A current hot topic. This is where sites are designed and built with users in mind who may be operating in contexts very different from our own. An accessible site is generally a more usable site – it can also help with search engine ranking.
• Search Engines - Natural (as opposed to paid) search results can also be improved by having a dynamic site. This is all about changing the content regularly, adding news items etc. A Content Management System (CMS) allows the owner of the website, to do this without recourse to programmers.
• Dynamic Content - A site that changes regularly can also entice visitors back to the site to catch up with current news items or regular commentary on today's hot topics. This can also make the site a valuable resource for information.
• Functionality - This is a matter of how well the website works as a business asset.  It could include an online integration of the business process, delivery of digital products or any number of other functions built specifically for the site.

If you would like Sumac to conduct a complementary appraisal of your business website, follow the link below.

Complementary website appraisal form. 

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