Avatars are good because…

Some customers are auditory learners – Highly visual information just doesn’t suit some brains.

They can help you do complicated things – People learn best from other people, not necessarily from reading something, and avatars provide some of that interaction.

Avatars are evil because…

They’re creepy! – If you must have an avatar, I recommend having an ordinary video shot of yourself, rather than an animated avatar. Especially one with an electronic voice.

People don’t always have or like sites with sound­ – I’ll vouch for the truth of this – I’m one of them. I can skim read much faster than the time it takes for someone to have a casual conversation with me.

Bottom line? If you have a site where people might need to be walked through complex tasks, or if the avatar is opt-in rather than opt-out (by exiting the site!), then go for it.

Don’t have an internal site search bar? Why, if Jakob Nielsen saw you in the street he’d rap you across the knuckles, young whippersnapper! Seriously though, an internal search bar is vitally important to the success of most sites. Your web marketing effort and SEO will bring visitors, but if they can’t find what they want, it will all be for naught.  Here’s why a search bar should be your next website investment.

Because it’s actually pretty easy!

Ask your SEO firm for help if you aren’t sure how to get a ‘Powered by Google’ search bar, at the minimum. It’s easy!

Because if they can’t find what they want, they’ll leave

There are thousands of sites on the net, and quite a few selling the same thing as you. If you make life hard for your customers, they’ll go to a site that doesn’t.

Because it gets you lots of sweet, sweet data!

Want to know what language your customers use? What they really want when they come to your site? The data from a search bar tells you much more explicitly than any other analytics tool.

Because your customers are ‘the searching type’

If your customers found you through SEO and search, they’ll certainly appreciate the same convenience within your site.

Won’t people be able to tell that I’ve used a template?

Well, not necessarily. They might be able to tell that you’ve used a template … and if your audience is in the web design and build industry, or the IT industry, I wouldn’t ever recommend using a template. However, the majority of customers will not be the least bit interested in whether you used a template to build your website … they just want to know if you’ve got what they want to buy at a reasonable price!

Doesn’t it hurt your business credibility to have a website that looks like it’s come off a production line?

Not necessarily. People who study usability on the web agree that predictability is one of the major factors in ensuring that your website is user-friendly. Remember that if people can’t figure out what the heck your site is about, all the clever Flash tricks and pretty graphics in the world won’t stop them throwing up their hands in disgust…

What if something goes wrong with the site?

Many free templates and themes made for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal websites can be pretty buggy. And when you didn’t pay for something, you can hardly demand that the creator give you your money’s worth by fixing up the bugs . Do keep in mind that there are plenty of quite cheap templates, that are less likely to be buggy. Also keep in mind that the most reliable solution of all, especially if you want to have people intereact with your website in any way, or will be changing content more than occasionally, is to have the professionals build your site.

What about my web marketing?

Excellent point! The free websites that look the best may not always have an SEO-friendly structure … and if something so basic is missing from your website, your business is instantly and forever on an uneven footing with all the other businesses in your industry that have customised, search engine optimised templates. This final consideration is perhaps the largest…

Think carefully before you use a free website template. The usual objections might not be the ones that impact your business the most … but remember, you get what you pay for!