Your Website Design Tips
By Stu Leventhal – Guru Marketing Tips Editor
Who is your website supposed to appeal to? Why are you building this site? Do you want visitors from anywhere on the globe, international viewers and users?
People from around the world are online and some will land on your site. The Internet has become the primary source of information for most of us, so having a website means you will have to keep up with technology if you want people to enjoy coming to your site. Yes regardless of what your main subject matter is on your site, it will have competing sites. You have to supply a worthwhile experience for your site visitors.
Once you gain an audience your job is far from done; you will have to be prepared to constantly improve the content; text, graphics, images and videos on your web pages. Other sites, perhaps competing company websites will be trying to steal away your fans. You must keep people interested so they keep coming back. You also want your visitors to tell other about your site so your audience keeps growing.
Web design and constantly modernizing the look, usability and functionality of your website can often mean all the difference to the success or failure of a website. There are a few basic things to keep in mind when designing or upgrading any type of website. Sure you will have a theme for your site but first we should discuss making sure that your website has all of the basic modern site features that now-a-days are expected to be present on all commercial websites.
These things won't be a problem as long as you’ve hired web designers that know how to adhere to normal web standards. If you are building your site yourself you will have to test each aspect to find out if it works properly. For example; pull up your website using each of the different popular browsers to actually see if the page’s look or anything else changes. Some browsers will alter the sizes of your photos or change the positions of your images or paragraphs on your page. You may have to re-code so everything looks the same no matter what browser the viewer uses to enjoy your site.
Do not try to WOW your visitors with complicated things; your website should be simple to navigate and easy for all users to immediately understand as soon as they land on any of your webpages. No users like landing on a new site that is too confusing. People, today, will not take the time to figure out how to find things and places on your website. With a few clicks they can be on any number of your competitors’ websites which are easier to use.
Good webpages are those that do not strain the eyes. When writing, choose fonts and colors that are easy to read. Colors should stand out nicely against the background color of the page. Remember that those fancy fonts usually affect how fast your readers can read the information you are presenting, so stick to easy readable fonts for most of your text and use fancy fonts sparingly, just for artistic titles and important words and short phrases you want to be seen as special.
Black text against a white background is always a winning combination with all your textual links being of the same highlight color throughout your website, such as light blue, so that all your links are quickly recognizable.
When it comes to graphics, images and videos know that visitors like them all and they like lots of them too. Just bear in mind that your pages can get too overloaded because you are publishing too many images. Visitors want and expect lots of images but they also want your pages to load fast too, so choose your images carefully and for full impact. Be sure the images make sense to be on the page they are on. As much as possible, use photos, graphics and videos only to support the content being presented to your users.
People will not stay long on a website with pages that take forever to load!
Writing for the web and writing for offline print, differs! Your web content should be shorter and quicker to the point. You will be getting all kinds of folks on your site, they each have different temperaments. You won’t always please everyone but you do not want anyone to get so bored that they click away. There is no single best way to design every webpage.
Web designers must consider the subject matter and the audience that they are seeking to please plus factor in your goals. Do you want to make the greater majority of web browsers happy or are you hoping to appeal to a smaller specialized group? What are you trying to accomplish with your site? If this is a commerce site then just getting lots of visitors may not be enough to actually make you money.
I have found that the websites that are most successful are those that were set up for a very specific visitor. The more precise the type of fans you seek, the easier it is to give them something that they deem as being special and just for them. Also by going after a narrower audience, the less competition you have from other websites because no one is doing exactly what you are on your site and your publishing can be made quite unique and interesting since it is better tailored for your specific, designated, kind of fans.
One big mistake many new website launchers make quite often is thinking that their new website stands alone as a separate entity when in reality your site is an extension of all the other marketing, promoting, advertising and full ambiance that your company already has. This means it does you no good if your site is telling a completely different company story from all your other marketing tools and promotional efforts.
Adding a great new website or newly remodeling a dull website can be a super boost for any company. Just remember not to get too carried away on your site; you must coordinate the messages you are sending online to sync with the company as it really is offline. Use the same theme you use in your brochures and pamphlet handouts on your website too. Create a uniform color scheme and cultivate a universal company vibe that customers and clients can easily recognize throughout all your marketing campaigns online and offline.
People from around the world are online and some will land on your site. The Internet has become the primary source of information for most of us, so having a website means you will have to keep up with technology if you want people to enjoy coming to your site. Yes regardless of what your main subject matter is on your site, it will have competing sites. You have to supply a worthwhile experience for your site visitors.
Once you gain an audience your job is far from done; you will have to be prepared to constantly improve the content; text, graphics, images and videos on your web pages. Other sites, perhaps competing company websites will be trying to steal away your fans. You must keep people interested so they keep coming back. You also want your visitors to tell other about your site so your audience keeps growing.
Web design and constantly modernizing the look, usability and functionality of your website can often mean all the difference to the success or failure of a website. There are a few basic things to keep in mind when designing or upgrading any type of website. Sure you will have a theme for your site but first we should discuss making sure that your website has all of the basic modern site features that now-a-days are expected to be present on all commercial websites.
- The design of your web site must be compatible to all browsers
- Your website should be able to pass HTML and CSS validation tests
- Every business or commerce website should be able to cater to disabled users
These things won't be a problem as long as you’ve hired web designers that know how to adhere to normal web standards. If you are building your site yourself you will have to test each aspect to find out if it works properly. For example; pull up your website using each of the different popular browsers to actually see if the page’s look or anything else changes. Some browsers will alter the sizes of your photos or change the positions of your images or paragraphs on your page. You may have to re-code so everything looks the same no matter what browser the viewer uses to enjoy your site.
Do not try to WOW your visitors with complicated things; your website should be simple to navigate and easy for all users to immediately understand as soon as they land on any of your webpages. No users like landing on a new site that is too confusing. People, today, will not take the time to figure out how to find things and places on your website. With a few clicks they can be on any number of your competitors’ websites which are easier to use.
Good webpages are those that do not strain the eyes. When writing, choose fonts and colors that are easy to read. Colors should stand out nicely against the background color of the page. Remember that those fancy fonts usually affect how fast your readers can read the information you are presenting, so stick to easy readable fonts for most of your text and use fancy fonts sparingly, just for artistic titles and important words and short phrases you want to be seen as special.
Black text against a white background is always a winning combination with all your textual links being of the same highlight color throughout your website, such as light blue, so that all your links are quickly recognizable.
When it comes to graphics, images and videos know that visitors like them all and they like lots of them too. Just bear in mind that your pages can get too overloaded because you are publishing too many images. Visitors want and expect lots of images but they also want your pages to load fast too, so choose your images carefully and for full impact. Be sure the images make sense to be on the page they are on. As much as possible, use photos, graphics and videos only to support the content being presented to your users.
People will not stay long on a website with pages that take forever to load!
Writing for the web and writing for offline print, differs! Your web content should be shorter and quicker to the point. You will be getting all kinds of folks on your site, they each have different temperaments. You won’t always please everyone but you do not want anyone to get so bored that they click away. There is no single best way to design every webpage.
Web designers must consider the subject matter and the audience that they are seeking to please plus factor in your goals. Do you want to make the greater majority of web browsers happy or are you hoping to appeal to a smaller specialized group? What are you trying to accomplish with your site? If this is a commerce site then just getting lots of visitors may not be enough to actually make you money.
I have found that the websites that are most successful are those that were set up for a very specific visitor. The more precise the type of fans you seek, the easier it is to give them something that they deem as being special and just for them. Also by going after a narrower audience, the less competition you have from other websites because no one is doing exactly what you are on your site and your publishing can be made quite unique and interesting since it is better tailored for your specific, designated, kind of fans.
One big mistake many new website launchers make quite often is thinking that their new website stands alone as a separate entity when in reality your site is an extension of all the other marketing, promoting, advertising and full ambiance that your company already has. This means it does you no good if your site is telling a completely different company story from all your other marketing tools and promotional efforts.
Adding a great new website or newly remodeling a dull website can be a super boost for any company. Just remember not to get too carried away on your site; you must coordinate the messages you are sending online to sync with the company as it really is offline. Use the same theme you use in your brochures and pamphlet handouts on your website too. Create a uniform color scheme and cultivate a universal company vibe that customers and clients can easily recognize throughout all your marketing campaigns online and offline.
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