Many small business owners have a hard time seeing the value of a website redesign. They believe ?if it ain?t broke, don?t fix it.? And this is understandable. Unless you are eating, breathing and sleeping technology and staying up to date with the moving target of Internet business, you?re not likely to know intuitively if your site needs a redesign.

And as a small business owner, you may be concerned about the up-front costs of a website redesign. But once you understand how a redesign can help you drive traffic to your site, convert more users and even save money, you?ll feel more positive about making the investment in your business.

Old School Web Design ? Tables-Based HTML

Not long ago, fax machines were the best way to deliver business documents fast. But now it?s so easy to scan and email documents, and even capture digital signatures through email, the fax machine is quickly going the way of the typewriter. With email, recipients can choose to read and archive the message online, or print it out themselves on their own desktop printer. No need for individual telephone lines for the fax machine, taking up desk space, replacing toner, uncurling fax paper and listening to screeching fax machine tones!

Tables-based HTML websites are like the fax machine. At one time tables were the best way to render information on the Web. But like curled paper and fading ink, tables left something to be desired. Designers were constrained by tables that allowed data to be rendered only in tabular form. The clean, professional and creative layouts today?s best designers create with Cascading Style Sheets could never be achieved with tables-based HTML.

New School Web Design ? Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets separate the presentation elements of a website (code) from its content (words). CSS allows web designers and developers to format the layout and style (fonts, spacing, text size, colors and so on) of multiple Web pages using one file, rather than entering the code to each individual page. Making changes to styles and layouts is much quicker and easier with CSS as well, as updating one file ?cascades? the changes to every page on the site. There is less room for error, and the website maintains a professional consistency.

But web designers and developers are not the only ones who benefit from CSS. You as a business owner benefit even more. How?

5 Solid Reasons To Redesign Your Website With CSS

1. Branding and Aesthetics

Consumer behavior experts tell us that, presented with many similar product or service options, and little prior knowledge and experience with these brands or companies, consumers will rely on mental shortcuts to make purchase decisions. The way your website looks compared to your competitors has a large influence on how a visitor perceives your company?s professionalism and goodwill. If your website looks modern, crisp and clean, you leave a positive impression on your visitors about your company.

2. Better Usability

CSS also reduces the amount of HTML code a website requires. Tables and extra tags for fonts and colors cause pages to load slowly. The longer it takes for your page to load, the more likely a visitor will hit the back button. Even though the majority of people use a broadband connection, many are still using dialup. And others may be using a high speed wireless network which, depending on how many others are sharing the same wireless channel, may experience fast or slow connections.

3. Accessibility

Rapid advances in wireless communications have made it easy to surf the ?Net using PDA?s and cell phones. Tabular page layouts simply don?t display properly on small screens. A business that wants to be accessible to anyone, anywhere now and in the future needs to have a website that can be viewed on mobile devices.

CSS design also greatly improves the user experience for the visually impaired, as they cause fewer problems for screen readers and Braille programs.

4. Search Engine Benefits

It has been estimated that up to 80% of all purchases online begin with a search engine. And an entire industry is dedicated to helping businesses rank highly for specific search terms to take advantage of the power of search engines.

Although the relevance of a webpage to a search term is determined by HTML elements like title tags and heading tags, content is still ?king? because visitors are looking for content, not code. When you have a high code-to-content ratio, your keyword density (the relative frequency of your targeted keywords on your page) is diluted by HTML instructions for how tables, fonts, styles and colors should be rendered. With CSS, there are no tables, and formatting information is contained in one style sheet. So search engines see more keywords and less code.

Search engines are more and are more likely to index deeper pages of your site and send you more referral traffic.

5. Bandwidth

Cascading Style Sheets can save you money and increase the number of eyeballs that see your page in other ways. ?Bandwidth? refers to how much website traffic your hosting company will allow you to have each month. Because every time a user lands on your site, he or she must load your pages in his or her browser. Not only visitors, but search engine spiders consume bandwidth too. The more code your pages have, the more bandwidth you use.

If you exceed bandwidth usage your site will be suspend until you buy more bandwidth or reach end of the month. Suppose your site receives a sudden surge of traffic shortly after a popular magazine features your company. That would be the worst possible time for your website to go offline! CSS makes for a more efficient use of bandwidth, and reduces the chances of such problems.

So Are Tables Taboo?

Absolutely not. There are bona fide reasons to use tables to display certain types of content. The beauty about CSS is that you still can use tables when you need to, but you don?t need to use tables for everything which significantly reduces your ?code load.?

How Do I Know If I?m Already Using CSS?

A quick test to see if your site is using CSS is to load your website in your browser (any page will do). Right click anywhere in the window, and a menu box will appear. Click ?View Page Source.? You should see keywords like rel=”stylesheet” or type=”text/css” near the top of the window that pops up to view your source code.

If you?re already using CSS, there may be other ways your business could benefit from a website redesign. Driving traffic, improving the customer experience, making your website more accessible to users and saving time and money on webmaster updates make it well worth the investment. Whether you choose to redesign now or in the future, make sure that your web designer and developer are skilled in CSS.

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1. Make it simple! A complicated website that gives too many choices or commands confuses the user. “Click here”, “Buy Now”, “Read this”. All are commands and if they appear close together on one page the question is - which command do I follow?? Hence confusion.

2. Easy to use navigation: Following on from the “make it simple” rule the navigation should also be simple and easy to follow. Always include a home link on every page as well as links to your main products sections. There is nothing more annoying than clicking on a link, going to a page and then not knowing where to go from there and having to press the back button. The navigation system should be in the same place on every page to give consistency and so the user always knows where to look.

3. Content Rich Text: This means write something useful and interesting! But at the same time keep it concise. Lots of drivel about your product and services will not be read but it does need to contain the key points. What is the product/service? How easy is it to get it? How much does it cost? What do I do now? This is also an important point for search engines - they love keyword rich text. So if your website is about red balloons make sure you include the words a few times (but don’t over do it!).

4. Consistency in fonts: Use the same/similar fonts throughout the pages. This makes it look neater, is easier on the eye and does not distract from the message you are trying to get across to the viewer. Uses lots of different sizes and lots of different fonts may make it look interesting but that is all it is - interesting fonts! You want everything to integrate (to make whole or complete by bringing everything together) and that’s how it works with fonts. And as regard which font? Try not to use Times - it just makes the site look old-style from the days when the internet was just an information centre. Use Arial or Verdana mostly as these are nice “square” fonts and look a lot neater than Times.

5. Quick loading site: Please, please, please don’t use large images, especially on your home page. Same goes for large Flash files. Flash is alright in it’s place - such as a website that you would expect lots of graphics (photographer, films etc.). But your average business website doesn’t need all that. Images should be compressed and correctly sized BEFORE being put into a web page. You may have downloaded a picture from your camera that is 1200 pixels wide and 300 pixels per inch - this is going to be HUGE in file size. So use a graphics program such as Photoshop or your camera software to a) reduce the width/height and b) reduce the resolution (pixels per inch). Don’t insert the picture and resize using the HTML commands for width and height because it will take so long to load. Visitors are an impatient breed and don’t generally wait for large pictures to download.

6. Use plenty of HTML text rather than images: It is important for search engines to be able to pick up text from web pages as well as for the viewer to have quick loading times. If text is put mainly into images it will not be read by the search engines and will take longer to download than simple text.

7. Point of view: When you have finished your website look at it from a different point of view. Imagine you are a customer and view the site from start to finish and see if it communicates your message and is easy to use. Get friends and associates to view the site and give their opinions as to the message and ease of navigation.

8. TEST, TEST, TEST: And when you’ve done that, test again. This means test all the links, all the pages. Make sure all the images got uploaded and are showing. Test it on a dial-up modem if you can to see how quickly/slowly it loads. If you have a form page test it and make sure you receive the form information.

9. Promote the website: Now your website is live it must be PROMOTED! It is not a case of “build it and they will come”. Ways to promote are a) the most obvious which is print ads (magazines, newspapers, local free paper, leaflets etc.) Be sure to include your website address on letterhead and business cards and at the bottom of your email. b) Write an article about your product/services and submit it to free article submission websites (search for article submission) and include your website at the bottom of the article c) Write a press release announcing the new website and submit this to press release websites d) Set up Google Adwords so your website is being advertised on Google and their related advertising sites. This is very easy to do and you can spend as much or as little as you like. e) Contact other website owners and offer to exchange links. These could be directory type websites that list sites similar to yours or sites that are in a similar business to you but obviously not competitors. An example would be for an artist to get listed on Art Gallery websites (a lot of which are free) and other artists websites. This kind of linking goes a long way to increase your search engine ranking because it makes your website look “important”! But don’t fall for these emails that say if you link to site (a) we’ll list you on site (b) - these are what is known as “link farms” and do not help search engine ranking.

10. Update regularly: After the website has gone “live” be sure to update it on a regular basis. If you have a news section this is absolutely vital. If a visitor sees the news hasn’t been updated since June 2005 he is likely to go somewhere else but it’s obvious you are no longer really there. This is also important for search engines. If your content changes they are more likely to pick up the site and list it.

If all the above seems too much like hard work contact a professional and get them to do it for you!

About the Author

Tracey Clerkin has been designing websites since 1998 and has her own web design company: www.artisanwebsites.co.uk

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