Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites

by Judd Lyon
Oct 15, 2008
Filed in: Book reviews

Building a strong business website requires patience, planning, and the collaboration of technical and non-technical team members. It's much easier said than done � websites can easily get off-track when the goals of different departments collide. In Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites, web veteran Kevin Potts offers a practical field-guide on how to get it done.

Gettin' Down to Business

The strength of this book it that the author keeps business objectives at the heart of each chapter, all while noting best practices on the technical side. He leads each subject with questions you should be asking yourself and what to shoot for, the implementation advice flows from there.

Early in the book the focus is on determining the role your website plays in your organization. Is it primarily to provide basic information about your company? To facilitate offline sales? Support current customers? Once you tease out and prioritize the primary aims of your site, you can move into the planning phase.

From Building to Promoting

From the broad-level questions, Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites then delves into important topics such as information architecture (how to organize the navigation for your site), what counts as well-written content, and making sure your site is accessible to the widest possible audience. There aren't many books that give you specific advice on writing an "About Us" section, or how to tackle "Frequently Asked Questions" � yet we all need them for our sites. Pott's clearly outlines point-by-point how to approach these and many other subjects.

A good portion of the book is dedicated to site-building, but equal attention is given to site-promoting. Nearly all of us need to actively promote our sites once they're up, and the author discusses the various ways we might handle this. The fundamentals of SEO, email marketing (props to Austin web design company TradeMark Media, whose newsletter is featured as a good example on pages 328 & 332), and online advertising are covered in this book. Specific platforms and software are suggested throughout the book, so you aren't left in a lurch when you finish reading.

Overall

Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites is a strong effort, as Kevin Potts is a talented writer. He has a knack for tying the different facets of web design together in a way that non-geeks can appreciate. This book would be a valuable addition to your web team's bookshelf.

Buy this book at Amazon.com

Book Details & Notes:

http://kevinpottsdesign.com/ - If you're interested in working with Kevin, contact him here. He's based out of St. Louis, Missouri.

http://www.graphicpush.com - His popular weblog on design, code, and the Textpattern content management system (note: he's a co-author of Textpattern Solutions, the book to get for learning the platform).

Title: Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites: Author: Kevin Potts; Publisher: friends of ED; ISBN: 1590598393; Length: 400 pages; Suggested Price: $39.99