A good Web site can build your business

Building a Web site for business isn't just a matter of getting a product or company name onto the Internet. It's also a matter of catering information to a specific audience, and making sure that customers and clients can easily navigate a site, Web designers and marketing professionals say.

"Web sites are useful tools for a lot of different businesses and markets," said Scott Lorenz, vice president of The Wright Group, a Perryville-based marketing firm.

"It's almost a given that people expect you to have" a Web presence, he said. "It doesn't replace one-on-one contact but it can be a sales tool."

Allan Smith discussed website design elements with his graphic design students at Southeast Missouri State University.

Yet nearly 90 percent of the Web sites on the Internet are poorly designed and aren't doing enough to help sell businesses and products, said Allan Smith, an adjunct professor at Southeast Missouri State University.

"If it's done correctly it can be a great tool," he said. Smith's employer, Triune Communication in St. Louis, designs Web sites and print material for businesses.

Businesses need to think about the Web site as another storefront for displaying wares and marketing products, he said.

Lorenz said one client in Potosi, Mo., uses a company Web site to explain how its product actually works. The site uses animation to explain the product functions.

"There are things you can do on a Web site that just don't work in a piece of literature," Lorenz said.

The Wright Group builds sites for clients that give consumers the most information in the fewest clicks.

Smith, a Southeast graduate, teaches art and graphic design students how to develop and create Web sites that businesses will want to use.

Most people who browse the Web don't critique sites for usability or design, but Smith asks his students to do just that. It helps them think about how to organize a site and who the audience will be.

"It shouldn't take people more than three clicks to navigate through a site," Smith said.

But with the availability of Web design programs, amateurs are putting up sites that don't look professional and are hard to navigate. Another problem is the discounted rates that are available for Web packages.

"They'll build you a site in two hours but it's a cookie cutter," Smith said.

Web sites should reflect the uniqueness of each business or group hosting the site. "You can buy clothes off the rack or have a tailor come up with an outfit," Smith said.

Most companies don't realize that their Web site could be revamped and bring them more attention and customers, Smith said. "If 90 percent of the sites are bad, it's just a matter of letting people know that and making them realize we can make them so much better."

Having a Web presence helped one Perryville business turn itself into a global player, Lorenz said. The shoe store sells Red Wing work boots, and since going online has taken orders from India and Great Britian.

"You can have a mom and pop store that becomes a global player" simply by adding a Web site, Lorenz said. "You can use it just to brand yourself or give information on what you sell."

He said some clients view the Internet as a "necessary evil" and others like what it does for their business. Almost everyone knows they need to have a Web presence, he said.