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At this week’s SOWD meeting, President Eleanor Jacobson gave our members tips on web site branding. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “name, term, design, symbol, or any feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

Elle told us it’s good to brand a web site because it sets a tone for your web site. It also promotes user experience by providing consistency, simplicity and organization throughout your web site.  According to Elle, the basic branding needs of a web site include:

1. A clear description of who you are/who the company is, and what you do/what the company does.
2. A simple web address that is short, to the point, and easy to remember. Your audience needs to be able to find your web site easily.
3. Clear and easy-to-use navigation. You don’t want your users becoming frustrated because they can’t find their way through your web site.  You can ask someone to find something in your web site to test this.
4. Contact information that is easy to find.
5. Secure hosting.
6. A design that’s appropriate for what your web site is about. If you’re not a design-oriented person, you might want to ask a professional for help.
7. Search engine optimization. You won’t get any business if you don’t get any search hits.

Some miscellaneous tips Elle provided include:

• Having a logo and/or a slogan can make you easily recognizable. Having a logo also means you can give your web site an icon that appears next to the title of your web site in a browser. These can be easily created with Favicon.
• Make sure your fonts and colors match across your web site, business cards, letterheads, or any other stationery you may have.
• Think about your audience and gear your web site toward them.
• Social media is huge, so you need to incorporate it into your web site if you want to make a name for yourself.
• Be standard compliant.
• Check out Aviva Directory for more branding tips.

Some important things to avoid in branding include:

• Having old content. Your site needs to be current or people will think you’re behind the times.
• Pages with content that is “Coming Soon”. Clearly, you didn’t plan things out enough if you have missing content.
• Bad design. There are too many reasons to list why this is a bad idea. Consult with someone who’s good at web design if you’re not confident yourself.
• Inconsistency. If you want people to be able to find their way around your web site, each page should be similar.