Web Design Information |
|
How To Design A Web Site
I'm not a professional web site designer and openly admit there is a lot that I don't know. But if you're a beginner I probably know more than you do, so listen up. Rather than give a lengthy dissertation on web design I have broken it down into the following points: Keep your navigation bars either at the top or left of the page (a recent tip I heard is: by putting the nav bar on the right of the screen it appears below your site content in the html code and therefore will be read by the SE spiders last). You can clearly see my navigation bar on the left of every page at http://www.007workfromhome.com Have your navigation bars visible on every page unless its a sales page, in which case you don't want them to go anywhere else. Divide your navigation bar into related groups of links for easier navigation. Have your company name and logo in the top left or top middle of the page. Keep the theme of your site standard throughout. Don't use different fonts on different pages or mix fonts on the same page without a good reason for doing so. A constant theme also includes the color of unvisited, active and visited links. Keep your use of colors to no more than about 5-7 different colors per page (less if you can). Include a site map which lists every page. Good for your visitors and site maps make it very easy for search engines to spider your site. Don't have more than 3 layers in your web site. That means if I was to start at your home page I should be able to reach any other page in your site in 2 clicks or less. Any more and your visitors may become lost and search and engines will leave before they have finished indexing your entire web site. This is easier than it sounds if you have a comprehensive navigation bar and a site map. Limit your use of graphics on a page unless they are essential to your marketing because they will drastically increase load time and some visitors won't be prepared to wait. Keep your background white and the majority of your text black. Mixing background colors and texts not only looks unprofessional it is can also be difficult to read. If possible, keep your links the natural blue color because they have proven to get the most clicks. If you want to use styles for your links, text or other tags, use css (cascading style sheets) because it will reduce the amount of non-keyword relevant text the engine spiders need to wade through before finding the meat. If you don't know what I'm talking about here, don't worry - it's not vitally important and something you can pick up further down the road. Include a links page which can be reached from the navigation bar. On your "Links" page have instructions describing how someone can post a link and the link you would like them to posted on their site. I prefer to view links before I post them in case they are not appropriate. Written by Murray Hughes http://www.007workfromhome.com/how-to-design-website.php Learn how to easily build your own Internet marketing business from the ground up from a long-time marketer giving away his experience for nothing. A Warehouse of Internet Marketing Knowledge at no cost, EVER! Go here now: Work at Home
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Graphic Design Using Color Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don't realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors "say" in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market. Web Design: Should You Hire Someone or Do It Yourself? So you need a website. You are not sure if you should hire someone or learn HTML and do it yourself. Consider these points before making your final decision. How Not To Get Web Design Work I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto. So I put an ad on a freelance site. It specified the programming qualifications needed, stated that the successful candidate should have good English, and was for companies only. Web Marketing: Design Mistakes That Drive Customers Away In Droves They may look cutting edge, but if you want a web site that contributes to your bottom line here are some design ideas you will want to avoid: What to Avoid to Make Your Website Design Effective The effective design is this one, which is maximum simplified, conformable to your users because they are your main purpose. This one, simply and clearly announcing what is your website about. This one, quickly offering the users exactly what they are expecting to see on your pages without being troubled with insignificant information. The big mistake made by lots of web designers is to project their activities from their own point of view, without thinking about user. Keep Your Navigation Simple! Navigation must be simple. Since it's the backbone of your site, it's imperative that visitors be able to understand it. Here are two tips on how to make simplicity a reality in your site: File Types For Icons Explained An application is not ready for use unless you have the proper icons for using into the application. Having the right icons for your application is not difficult if you have the help of a specialist or a specialized company to design the icons. The icon designer takes care of the whole design process starting from understanding what kind of icons are you looking for, designing them, submitting them for your approval and finalizing the icons to be used. The designer can also help you with choosing the most appropriate file types for the icons used into your application. But because you know better then anybody else the application for which the icons are, it is understandable that you'll be one of the people involved in choosing the file type for the icons. This is why it is a wise thing to know few things about the most common file types for icons. Flash - To Use Or Not To Use? Out there in the WWW there are thousands sites using flash for their needs. But the majority sites are not in this list. Let's summaries some facts about flash using on YOUR web site and after that it's you who will have to decide: to use or not to use. There are some facts about Macromedia Flash Technology: Orient Your First-time Web Site Visitor Imagine spinning someone around so profoundly and for so long that when you finally tell them to open their eyes, they ask "Where am I?" not knowing if they are even on the same continent they started from. When someone comes to your web site from a search engine or through a link from another site, it's like that for them. They may have little or no context within which to understand your home page - or another page deep within your site that they've landed on. Through The Looking Glass My mother used to take me along when she visited an old lady down a cobbled lane who had a crystal ball on her dining room table and a pack of playing cards. My mother was superstitious and really believed a lot of what she was told by the old lady. She wanted to know what the future held not only for herself but for me, her only little boy. I was about five or six years old at the time, and used to gaze at the reflected images upon the crystal ball of the sunlit window behind me and the lace curtains, although the old lady would place her hands at either side of the crystal ball and say that she could see the future and told of what she saw, I could only see the reflection of that window with the lace curtains. The old lady was either a genuine medium or was just guessing what my mother wanted to hear to keep her coming back for more of the same, and make herself a small income to supplement her pension. Other Ways to Look at Things Many people today are tired of the Microsoft software that came pre-packaged with their operating system. Some have switched over to Apple's Macintosh line, but for the most part we just put up with what we have. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) has come under a lot of fire as of late for several reasons. Hackers find IE easy to exploit. Maximising Web Site Viewability - Browsers With so many different configurations internet users have their computers set up with, it can be difficult to decide how web sites should be configured so that it is viewable in as many configurations as possible. How To Create A Stunning Drop Capital Effect On Your Web Pages Drop Capitals are frequently used in many newspapers, books and magazines in the offline world.� You will frequently see the large capital letter sinking down into the first paragraph of articles, stories and chapters in the majority of publications you come across. How to Convince Your Visitors to Return Often One visit does not make a sale. Be sure to make your Web site attractive to your visitors so that they want to come back. You don't win their trust right away. It may take 4-7 visits before they buy. Increase Sales on Your Website! Use Graphics! How many times have you clicked on a website only to find a screen full of text? You read a large-scale headline and then all you see is text, much like reading a letter. You scan down the page looking for something to attract your attention. Love at First Site: Giving Your Website Visitors the right Impression Think of the people who visit your site as blind dates. When you open the door, your blind date usually knows whether they are attracted to you within the first minute. How do they know? Easy. By how you look, what you say, and how you treat them. If you open the door wearing the same clothes you wore in 1987, say, "Wow, from my friend's description, I thought you would be a lot better looking," and sneeze in your dates face, not only will you never get a second date, your date will run for his/her life. Seven Habits of Highly Effective Webmasters A highly effective website will always reflect its highly effective webmaster. Throughout the years of doing a number of websites, I've seen quite a few effective webmasters all over the web and I would like to share to you their successes by exploring on this topic: "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Webmasters." Should I Use Pop-Up Ads? Web advertising has taken many forms, including those that appear within the Web page as an in-line graphic, as well as those that "pop up" (over) or "pop under" a browsing window. If you are considering the use of pop ups on your website as an advertising method, this article provides some points you should consider. Database Driven Website The solution lies in creating a 'Database driven website', through which web pages are created dynamically which further gives a web site visitor an up-to-dated view of information stored in the database. When the information in the database is updated, site visitors will immediately see the changes that have been made. Building Your Website to Save You Money Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE you any money?Websites are more than just marketing tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly promoting you and your products. While that's great, why not use that same website to save yourself some money?How? Well, while I don't know your particular situation, I can provide you with some thought-provoking ideas that you can take back to your web designer for more input.Reduce your support costs.It is often cheaper, easier, and more effective to support customers over the Internet than through more tradiditonal methods such as telephone and direct mail. Services such as instant messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide immediate chat facilities to current and potential customers.Corporations can support their employees and business partners over their corporate intranets, keeping them informed and soliciting their feedback. Providing documentation for perusal saves time and reduces labor on your email server.Providing a map to your location can save your receptionist valuable minutes on the phone explaining turns and streets, freeing her up for more important tasks.Including a forum on your site can bring people of a common industry or interest together to discuss upcoming events, current problems, and other interesting ideas and thoughts. These forums can grow very large very quickly. And, in the meantime, your website traffic increases. Stick an ad on the forum and bring in more sales from people that you already know have expressed interest in your industry.Interested in reading more ways to increase your sales and save money?Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full storynow! |
home | site map |
© 2005 |