21 Days

Day 9 – Let’s consider other iWeb pages

iWeb sets us up with many of the common pages that are used when a web site is built, be it the home page, about me page, a blog or even a photo gallery. Then there is the blank page that comes with every iWeb theme, what can you use that for? Today’s lesson is a pause for thought in what other pages you may want to include on your iWeb site.

There are many to consider and, of course it depends on what sort of web site you are running so let’s take a look at some of the more popular ones that don’t come as standard with iWeb

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Contact Me Page

It still surprises me that Apple didn’t include a template for a Contact page within iWeb’s standard themes. Perhaps it was too difficult to implement, but it certainly isn’t complicated now.

If you run a web site that offers any kind of a service or product, be it a full blown business site or just a blog giving tips and tricks you must provide a contact page for your readers. There will always be something that you have missed that someone will want to ask you a question about, always, and by adding a contact page you help you readers get over this barrier.

You don’t have to go mad with your contact page either. iWeb allows you to add a Google Map via a drag n drop widget, but that may be going to far for you. Simply adding a small form to your site can make all the difference.

If you are a business site adding a contact page gives customers to your site the feeling of security; they have a means of getting in touch with you if they have a problem with your product or service. You can put as much or as little information as you want. It is always a good idea to add links to your various social networking sites to this page in case the visitor doesn’t want to complete the form; they may be ardent twitter fans and prefer to keep in touch that way instead.

Adding a form to an iWeb site is easy, I wrote a tutorial on it many, many posts ago all thanks to JotForm.com.

FAQs Page

Once you have added a contact form to your iWeb site you may notice after time that you are being asked the same questions over and over again. This is where the FAQs, or frequently asked questions page comes in. A simple list of these questions, with full answers is all that is required. But remember to add a link to this page on your contact page. Perhaps a little paragraph asking users to check the FAQs first before e-mailing; it can save you hours in not having to e-mail.

If you do not want to call this page FAQs then why not try Support instead. That way you are not restricted to just answering questions, you an offer advice too.

Client Page

Another one for a business site to consider is a Client page, not somewhere for your current clients but past ones which you have been proud to work with. Nothing cries ‘hire me!’ like a few well placed famous logos of companies you can be associated with. An added bonus would to be get a few one or two line reviews from the companies too. Client pages mean you mean business, you are professional.

Services Page

Imagine the scene. You are a wedding photographer, you have a beautiful iWeb site showing off some stunning wedding photographs. Your site’s header says your name and that you take wedding photos. I’ve looked through your portfolio and think you are the photographer for me, your photos are amazing, but is that all you do? Am I just going to get a collation of photos and that is it?

No, you offer loads of other services too, all listed on your Services page. Services such as albums, DVDs of the wedding, photo editing so I get some fancy wedding shots, pre and post wedding shots as well as the event itself, I could go on and on. But I only know this because you have a separate Services page. It’s not quite as important as your portfolio, that shows how good you are, but it does tell me what I can expect from you other than you just pitching up with your camera.

In a nutshell if you offer more than the basics, tell your users about it, you never know where it might lead. Not only that, but if you word your services page correctly it’s another page that can be found by search engines which can in turn drive visitors to your site.

Workflow Page

If a client visits your site and is in two minds between hiring you or somebody else then explaining to your readers how you work could make all the difference. If you are offering a service the chances are that the people who visit your site don’t know much about the service you are offering (why else would they be there?). By explaining in layman’s terms how you work, what the processes involved are and what users can expect will help. The page can be either standalone but is better as an extra section or a ‘sub-page’ to your About Me page.

Of course you don’t have to create entirely new pages if you don’t want to. Some of these pages could be added to your site in the form of PDFs for the visitor to download and read later.

This list could go on and on however many of the other pages that may be considered can be made from already designed iWeb pages, for example you can make an excellent product page from the photo page.

Tomorrow we will be concentrating on sorting out our iWeb site’s navigation, see you then.[/premium]

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