We live in such a self-centered culture, i.e. this is 'me', this is what 'me' is about, what do you think of 'me', etc. It's easy to fall into the trap of making your website all about 'me', too. What if we thought past this standard approach and tried on our customer glasses for just a sec. I suspect my customer wants to know a little about me but they are more interested in themselves and what I can do for them (there's that 'me' again). So what web design and navigation approaches work best from that angle?
First off, I would make my site simple to navigate. Make your choices easy and right up front. Don't give too many choices, a confused reader is indecisive. Think about value - what do I bring to the table for my people? Then make categories or pages based on that idea.
Make your site quick-loading. Some of the universe is still in dial-up land and heavy pages with large image files are a real turn-off.
Keep your site consistent. I love CSS styles for this reason, every page can be updated wih the same theme at the click of a mouse. If you change your mind on a color, image or background, CSS makes it easy to experiment and make a change.
Add interaction of some type. The form is a basic tool which you should always have. This allows you to gather, at the minimum,name, email address, and permission to contact. The next step up is opt-in email which is a more sophisticated version of a form and which allows your customer database to be built and stored automatically by your program of choice. More on this another time.
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