I presented at MarketCounsel’s Member Summit today with Angela Nielsen from One Lily (Web Design) on what makes for a good advisor website (while the presentation was geared toward advisors, the material is relevant to any financial services website). The presentation was entitled Advisor Websites: The Right Design + The Right Content = Success (Last item under presentations).
The title is pretty self explanatory – in order for a website to be successful, it must have both good design and good content. You have a very short period of time to attract a visitor’s attention, so both the look and the content must “hit” the viewer immediately and compel them to explore further. The design and ease of use of the home page is extremely important. For example, if it takes time for the front page to load a large video, you’ll probably lose the interest of the reader. Make is simple – yet elegant.
Also, many people really do not like it when music starts when a website opens. Forgo some of the “glitz,” and you stand less chance of annoying the user. If you annoy the user they will go elsewhere guaranteed!
Now that you at least get them to stay on your site a little longer – again not always an easy task – the content has to grab them. Don’t make the user work – be very clear on what you do, who you do it for and your value-added – give the user a compelling reason to look further.
If you can accomplish the above – have a site that has both a great design and great content – then you have accomplished a very important goal in creating your website – and them, as they say, Res Ipsa Loquitur!
