Optimal Website Design

Written by Elizabeth McGee


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6. Keep navigation consistent Keep your site's navigation consistent. What you do on your index page should be donerepparttar same way onrepparttar 132500 rest of your site's pages. Keeprepparttar 132501 colors consistent as well. Don't force your viewers to relearn each page of your site. Keep your navigation bars and linksrepparttar 132502 same for each page.

7. Understandable buttons and links. Title your links appropriately. Don't use cute or misleading names. For example, if you have a link to sports equipment don't labelrepparttar 132503 link 'Great Outdoors', call it 'sports equipment'. If you have a link to 'cameras' don't labelrepparttar 132504 link 'hotshots', label it 'cameras'. Your viewers don't want to waste time figuring out what things are. Be clear with your labeling.

8. Focus onrepparttar 132505 'YOU', notrepparttar 132506 'ME'. Make it obviously clear to your readers that you are there for them. What can you do for your reader? What benefits are there for your viewer? How can you make their life or business better or more profitable? Request feedback on their success. Find out what they want to know or how you can offer them what they need. 9. Make sure your page loads fast. If viewers have to wait for a page to load they will click elsewhere. Here's a site that will help you determine how well your page loads. If a page doesn't load in 8 seconds you lose 1/3 of your visitors. Here's a great free tool to help you check your website's load time: http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loading-time-checker.htm 10. Use a site map. A site map will give visitors a "guide" on viewing your site and also eliminate confusion, especially with larger sites. It's a road map for your visitors to follow while they are on your site. Sitemaps will also increase rankings and placement withinrepparttar 132507 Search Engines.



Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. You can contact Elizabeth at mail@pro-marketing-online.com or visit her website at http://www.pro-marketing-online.com


User Friendly Website Hints & Tips

Written by Telian Adlam


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6. Make sure your links are clearly marked. Underline it, strike it through, changerepparttar font color, do something, but make sure it is differentiated from your site’s normal text. If it’s not a link - don’t underline it. Go through your site and make sure that your links lead somewhere other than ‘HTTP 404 - page not found’, it scares most people. A helpful tool for checking your site links is located at [www.stickysauce.com]

7. ‘Enter here and ye shall knowrepparttar 132499 truth…’ You do not need a gate-keeper to screen outrepparttar 132500 wandering souls. Ifrepparttar 132501 first page someone sees upon visiting your site has five or fewer words (one of which being ‘enter’), you’re wasting bandwidth. If it’s a flash intro, that’s a step up - but most visitors clickrepparttar 132502 ’skip intro’ link before it even finishes loading.

But you’ve worked so hard on (or paid a lot of money for) that awesome flash intro and somebody better see it! Solution: place a link within your site content. Once you’ve earnedrepparttar 132503 trust of your visitors, they will probably watch your flash presentation out of sheer curiosity if nothing else.

So when is a homepage with enter here welcome? Well, usually never - but if you must have one, use it when you’re giving your visitorsrepparttar 132504 option of seeingrepparttar 132505 Flash or HTML version of your site.

8. Grammar is overrated [andrepparttar 132506 spill-chekcer too] Most web authoring and word processing software comes with a spell/grammar check utility - don’t let your hard earned money go to waste, use it. Some ofrepparttar 132507 more common grammatical mistakes are misusing its, it’s, there, their, they’re, your, you’re, and noone (correct=no one). Proof reading your final product is also helpful. No one is infallible, that’s why pencils have erasers and computer programs have [ctrl+z].

9. Music and other strange noises on your website …The only thing I will say here is - if you are brave enough to use music on your site, make absolutely sure you have a clearly marked ’sound off’ or ’sound mute’ button. ( An even better option would be to let your visitor decide whether or not they want to hear your music and have a ‘play music’ or ‘listen’ button. )

10. All I’ve seen forrepparttar 132508 last 10 minutes is ‘page loading’, I think something might be wrong with my broswer…This is probably one ofrepparttar 132509 biggest gripes a site visitor has. If your page takes more than a minute to load (on dial-up) and you have anything less thanrepparttar 132510 meaning of life hidden within your content - something needs to be done. The average person does not have a T1 line running through their home.

Of course, there are many other quirks and annoyances out there, and this brief article is notrepparttar 132511 definitive source, but if you want to read more about what NOT to do with your website, visit [http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com]

Telian Adlam is the owner and manager of www.alternativesoho.com - a website dedicated to promoting balance and success, not only in business, but in life.


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