Why Design
Is As Important As Promotion
We have all
heard that there's no use having the best site
in the world if you don't promote it, and submit
it to the search engines.
Well the
opposite is also true. There is no point in
promoting your site unless it is well designed
and going to trap your visitors.
With over an
estimated 300,000 home-based online businesses
starting each week, internet surfers have such a
choice and have to wade through a sea of
information to find what they want - and they
are more likely to be trapped by a professional
looking site than one that looks homemade.
Now a
professional looking site does not have to be
filled with the latest technology, graphics and
Java applets which take up space and time to
download, however it does need to take account
of a few website design aspects overlooked by
many homebuilt sites.
1) The site
must load fast, since not everyone has
broadband or ISDN connection. The most common
mistake made here is not optimizing the
graphics, and any image over 100KB is probably
too large.
2) Websites
look different on different browsers (not
only between Internet Explorer and Netscape, but
also between different versions of these
browsers) and different platforms (PC and Mac).
What may look great on one browser may look
unprofessional on another.
At
http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html
you can see what your site looks like in
different browsers.
3) Websites
also look different on screens with different
resolutions. A website designed on a 640x480
screen will look different on a 1024x768 screen.
4) Some
companies with large networks restrict downloads
from the internet (to protect their
intranets), so any technology such as Flash
which needs plugins, might not be visible to
some company employees.
5) It is
very important to understand what the TITLE and
META tags do, since these play a very
important part in your website ranking on the
search engines. It is surprising how many
websites have no TITLE or META
tags.
6) The site
must be easy to navigate so that a visitor
can find what they are looking for with
one or two clicks.
7) Lastly
and probably most importantly, the content of
the site must be good. Not only must it be
good, but also it must offer a benefit to the
visitor. The content must be interesting enough
to either make the potential customer buy on the
spot, with the use of compelling headlines or
banner ads, or it must give them a reason to
return.
If you are
maintaining your own website, keep it simple. It
is then that much easier not to fall into
the design traps mentioned above.
Here are some tips that could improve your site
design while maintaining a professional look.
1) Use
background color in tables instead of
graphics to add color to your site.
2) Make use
of percentages instead of absolute values in
tables for width and height values, but then
again check that the final result looks OK. This
allows your web pages to stretch to fit the
browser screen.
3) Use CSS
style sheets to keep your site uniform.
There are excellent tutorials on how to use
style sheets at House of Style
http://www.westciv.com
Using style
sheets is as easy as putting an image in your
site. You simply link each of your pages to the
style sheet. Then if you want your whole site to
use a different background color or a different
font, you only change the style sheet. Style
sheets can greatly simplify the HTML on your
pages.
4) If you
are using graphics for your site navigation,
make sure you also include a text menu (near
the bottom of the page is a good place). This is
because
a) some search engines have problems following
graphic links (especially JavaScript and image
maps) and
b) some people
turn off graphics on their browsers so make sure
that you also use ALT tags to describe
navigation buttons.
5) Don't use
fancy fonts that you have downloaded from
the net because unless they are supported on
your visitors' browsers, they will not be seen.
Keep the fonts simple.
Finally, put
yourself in the shoes of your target audience,
and ask yourself if your site gives you a reason
to browse further.
Using strong headlines and compelling text is
more important than special effects and
large graphics.
The best websites from a marketing point of view
are often the simplest.
SK Kor
Internet Marketing Consultant
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