If you are a business owner, one of the most expensive tasks you have ahead of you is the building of a website. However, it is possible to take on this job yourself. You don’t want to cut corners, though. If you implement the following advice, it won’t be long before you can design a very professional-looking website.
Have your website prominently feature a tagline. The tagline includes a motto or clever phrase that speaks to the purpose of your business. Using a clear tagline is important because when someone visits your page, you have roughly eight seconds to capture their attention and entice them to explore the rest of your site.
Frame designs were great in the 1990s, but they are no longer useful. Frames were in heavy use during the beginning days of the Internet, but they were very flawed. Frame designs are harder to bookmark, and they make scrolling a chore. There are much easier ways to provide your users a flow through your website.
Don’t overload a website with more graphics and photos than necessary. Even though graphics might give you a professional looking website, too many may result in a crowded site. Graphics are not meant to be used as mere decorations; they’re meant to better your site content. Your site will be easier to navigate too if you keep the graphic clutter to a minimum.
Make it easy for visitors to back out of a process if they change their minds. This includes anything from filling out a simple set of questions, up to registering for a product or service. If your visitors can’t easily change their mind and back out of registering for a site feature, they may feel forced to complete a transaction. This isn’t good for your web traffic or your reputation.
Make sure that you regularly remove outdated and inaccurate content from your website. If someone visits your site for up-to-date information and find that it’s discussing the latest event – which happened a year ago – they’re leaving. Visitors want to visit sites that have the most up-to-date information, and leaving up outdated information shows that you are not committed to that. Put removing outdated content on your to-do list, to do every 2-4 weeks.
Ensure that you save personal information that the user might need to enter again into your site. For instance, if someone filled in their name and address when creating an account, pre-populate this information when the customer fills out an order form. If you use this data to your advantage, users will be able to save time as they navigate your site.
Creating a newsletter can help you get repeat visitors. When a customer can get frequently updated on things, they will keep visiting to see more. Offer the signup form as a link off to the side on your site. Make sure you have a way to keep track of who signed up. Make sure you only send out the letter to those that have explicitly requested to view it.
Pay attention to the background of your website. There are sites out there that use animated GIF images for their backgrounds. This might be OK for a personal site, but it can also be a serious distraction that makes it hard for readers to focus on the text. Pick a background that meshes with your site, not against it, and your viewers will have a much easier time understanding what you want to say.
If you’re creating a large site, include search functions for your visitors. Perhaps in the upper corner, a search box will ensure that your visitors can search for anything within your site. You can use Google search or FreeFind, as they both give you access to an engine which is free and simple to use.
If you are fortunate enough to have the funding for a major investment into your site, this does not mean that is a wise thing to host the site on your own. Design as much as you can on your own, though allow somebody else to do the hosting. This will save you a lot of time, and provide you with the ability to concentrate on other important things apart from the security and safety of your site.
Use shortcuts. There are plenty of site design shortcuts so that you can save time. For example, you can use certain HTML codes to make very quick changes without needing to re-load.
The path from newcomer to expert is rife with challenge. In fact, you’ll probably mess up on a few different aspects of website design. However, if you apply the knowledge you learned here, you should soon be able to have the ability to create an appealing website.