Creating a website from scratch is both exciting and frightening! It can be hard to see where to start, who you can ask for advice, and the budget you will need. By following the tips presented here, you will be able to set off in the right direction from the start.
If your website is going to attract visitors, it needs to be easy to navigate. Links should be easy to find and prominently displayed. Simple menus will make navigation easy for your visitors. Link to the main page from every other page of the site so that visitors can easily find important information.
Let your users have the option of canceling any action if they wish to do so. This includes anything from filling out a simple set of questions, up to registering for a product or service. If you do not give your users the option to cancel something, then you are making them do something, which can cause users to be leery of making future purchases or coming back to your website at all.
To get repeat visitors, use an e-mail newsletter. This is great for captivating someone whom may have viewed your site, but then gone on to forget about it entirely. Put the form for signing up in a prominent location, such as a sidebar, and use it to compile a list of visitors who opt in to your newsletter. Send the newsletter only to people who opt-in or you could get in trouble for spam!
To make a more attractive website, try using your own pictures. This will make it more appealing to your visitors. Many people find pictures appealing and will spend more time on the site and looking at them.
File Sizes
Regardless how your website is designed aesthetically, it is important to make certain that all of the files have small file sizes. The reason for this is that your file sizes directly affect how quickly your website loads. You want your site to load as quick as possible. Bear in mind that some site visitors are still using dial-up. Test to be sure that even computers with slow dial-up modems can connect quickly to your website.
Don’t use frames if you want to optimize your website. Users may like pages with frames included, but the information inside of those frames is not included in search engines. Your website won’t rank high if the information isn’t visible. When this happens, you won;t get a lot of visitors.
It is very important that customers can navigate any website easily. Your placement of navigation links on your pages will determine the length of your visitor’s stay. Your navigation structure should be easy to navigate for the best user experience.
Test your site on multiple browsers, platforms (Windows 7, Windows XP, Linux, etc.) and devices (Mac, PC, tablets, cell phones, etc.) Since each browser works a little differently, your coding could be interpreted differently on each one, and in some instances it could cause the website to not function properly. Learn which browsers are used the most. Check how your site behaves on all the major browsers for both PCs and mobile devices.
Use basic fonts which every user will be able to see. Fonts say a lot about the professionalism of a site and the business it represents. Fonts that are overly artistic may seem like a good idea, but often aren’t accessible on all computers. If a visitor doesn’t have a font on his computer, his browser may display a default font that doesn’t look right. That can ruin your design!
Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, you are ready to dive in to the creation of your site. Put together a budget, find mentors and start designing your website. Beginning today will lead to a great site in the future!