The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. in case you have massive blocks of text, make sure to make use of CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is large to read basically. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look tidy & tidy, you must strain your eyes to read the actual text.
No matter how wonderful your web-site design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your web-site to make sure it serves its functions optimally.
Make it simple for visitors to find content that they require on your site. in case you have thousands of articles on your site also a sure visitor desires to find one single article from that pile, you must provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.
make sure that your site lots fast in case you do not require to lose visitors. Most web users will leave an online site if it doesn't load within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your web-site is delivered to the visitors as soon as feasible to retain their attention.
Last of all, test each & every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be cautious about that.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
A Good Design is very Important
Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in.
Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.
Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.
On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.
On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" anology, and you will get my point.
Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.
Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.
On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.
On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" anology, and you will get my point.
5 important Rules in Website Design
When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Reducing Load Time Through Image Optimization
Even though increasingly Net users switch to broadband every year, a huge portion of the web's population is still walking on nice elderly dialup connections. It is therefore unwise to count them out of the equation when you are designing your net site, & a major consideration they must make for dialup users is the loading time of your net site.
Usually, all the text on your net site will be loaded in a short time even on a dialup connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is chiefly huge images on your net site, & it is important to strike a delicate balance between using images to attract your users & not to bog down the general loading time of your site.
You ought to also go to a greater length & optimize every picture on your site to make positive it lots in the least time feasible. What I mean is to make use of picture editing application to remove unnecessary information on your images, & thereby effectively reducing the file size of your picture without affecting its appearance.
In case you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an picture as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears & lets you select the "quality" of the JPEG picture -- normally a setting of 8 to 10 is nice as it will preserve the quality of your picture while saving it at a little file size. In case you do not have Photoshop, there's lots of free picture compressors online that you can download & use to reduce your image's file size.
On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format -- the picture editing application clips away all the color information not used in your picture, hence giving you the smallest file size feasible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your picture, so make your choice wisely!
Usually, all the text on your net site will be loaded in a short time even on a dialup connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is chiefly huge images on your net site, & it is important to strike a delicate balance between using images to attract your users & not to bog down the general loading time of your site.
You ought to also go to a greater length & optimize every picture on your site to make positive it lots in the least time feasible. What I mean is to make use of picture editing application to remove unnecessary information on your images, & thereby effectively reducing the file size of your picture without affecting its appearance.
In case you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an picture as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears & lets you select the "quality" of the JPEG picture -- normally a setting of 8 to 10 is nice as it will preserve the quality of your picture while saving it at a little file size. In case you do not have Photoshop, there's lots of free picture compressors online that you can download & use to reduce your image's file size.
On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format -- the picture editing application clips away all the color information not used in your picture, hence giving you the smallest file size feasible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your picture, so make your choice wisely!
How To Have Websites Built For You The Cheap Way
Normally, in the event you require to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars. All this can change in the event you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest cost. Here's a rough guide:
First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design sites for you. Have you ever seen those adverts in newspaper classified advertisement sections that offer a 5-page web-site at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they must increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages, promotion costs and so on.
Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they don't have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they are going to be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from large companies, so it is a "no-brainer" choice.
However, select freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will certainly get the best deal. On top of that, it is possible for you to to select the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.
Another route you can take is to design your web-site yourself. Give it some thought, in the event you only require 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? spend a tiny time to sit down and do it yourself. You'll be able to design your own sites even in the event you have no idea a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.
First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design sites for you. Have you ever seen those adverts in newspaper classified advertisement sections that offer a 5-page web-site at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they must increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages, promotion costs and so on.
Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they don't have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they are going to be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from large companies, so it is a "no-brainer" choice.
However, select freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will certainly get the best deal. On top of that, it is possible for you to to select the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.
Another route you can take is to design your web-site yourself. Give it some thought, in the event you only require 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? spend a tiny time to sit down and do it yourself. You'll be able to design your own sites even in the event you have no idea a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.
Good Design Practices
Your website is where your business resides -- it is like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practise nice design principles to make positive your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors & sells to as plenty of people as feasible.
Make positive you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu ought to be uncluttered & concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.
Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly & most of the time they are very unnecessary. In the event you think any picture is essential on your site, make positive you optimize them using picture editing programs so that they have a maximum file size.
Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is long, you ought to split it in to seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks won't be sizable. This is important because a block of text that is sizable will deter visitors from reading your content.
Make positive your website complies to web standards at www.w3.org & make positive they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Web Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox & Opera, you will lose out on plenty of potential visitors.
Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate information, not to generate visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site & even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.
Use CSS to style your page content because they save plenty of work by styling all elements on your website in one go.
Make positive you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu ought to be uncluttered & concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.
Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly & most of the time they are very unnecessary. In the event you think any picture is essential on your site, make positive you optimize them using picture editing programs so that they have a maximum file size.
Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is long, you ought to split it in to seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks won't be sizable. This is important because a block of text that is sizable will deter visitors from reading your content.
Make positive your website complies to web standards at www.w3.org & make positive they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Web Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox & Opera, you will lose out on plenty of potential visitors.
Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate information, not to generate visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site & even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.
Use CSS to style your page content because they save plenty of work by styling all elements on your website in one go.
5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back
A lot of successful sites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are simpler to convert in to paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:
1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox
When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions & interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow & your visitors will come back to your site religiously every day.
2) Start a web log (weblog)
Keep an online journal, or more often known as a weblog, on your site & keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures & they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor in the event you post fresh news often. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is as well as a actual life person behind the website.
3) Carryover out polls or surveys
Polls & surveys are other forms of interaction that you ought to definitely think about adding to your site. They provide a speedy way for visitors to voice their opinions & to get involved in your web-site. Be definite to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your web-site to keep them interested to find out about the results.
4) Hold puzzles, quizzes & games
imagine how plenty of office workers procrastinate at work every day, & it is possible for you to to gauge how plenty of people will keep visiting your site in the event you provide a fascinating or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.
5) Update often with fresh content
Update your site often with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known & most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of site owners. No one will require to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!
1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox
When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions & interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow & your visitors will come back to your site religiously every day.
2) Start a web log (weblog)
Keep an online journal, or more often known as a weblog, on your site & keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures & they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor in the event you post fresh news often. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is as well as a actual life person behind the website.
3) Carryover out polls or surveys
Polls & surveys are other forms of interaction that you ought to definitely think about adding to your site. They provide a speedy way for visitors to voice their opinions & to get involved in your web-site. Be definite to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your web-site to keep them interested to find out about the results.
4) Hold puzzles, quizzes & games
imagine how plenty of office workers procrastinate at work every day, & it is possible for you to to gauge how plenty of people will keep visiting your site in the event you provide a fascinating or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.
5) Update often with fresh content
Update your site often with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known & most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of site owners. No one will require to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!
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