Now that you are ready to establish your very own
website you have to take a moment to think about your web layout and
design. When you think about your favourite website, what comes to
mind? If you are like most people you appreciate a website that is
visually appealing, easing to navigate, informative, interactive, and
free from pop-ups. These are the five basic rules for designing a
website that will stimulate your visitors and result in repeated
traffic.
Visual Appeal
To ensure that your website
meets this criteria use a bit of psychology. There are colours that
appeal to most people and actually instil feelings of trust, confidence
and honesty.Ever notice, for example, that blue, white and red figure
prominently in health foods? These colours are selected because they
appeal to adults who associate such colours with wholesome goodness and
purity. Red is a powerful colour if you want to appeal to the impulse
buyer, while darker colours offer a more sophisticated appeal thereby
allowing you to charge higher prices than your competitors. Think of
the dark brown of GUCCI for example. If you are going to go dark, be
sure to add contrast with bright bold visuals. Big blocks of red,
black, green, or purple don’t work so well on the web without effective
contrasts. Use clear uncluttered lettering and white spaces to make
your messages stand out.
Easy to Navigate
If you have
ever been to a website that posed navigational problems the one thing
you will remember is how quickly you found the X-box. If you want to
keep your customers on your site make their web experience enjoyable.
Some sites go so far as to have soothing audio, (think MOBY), movies,
tips or daily inspirational quotes. While these are great bonuses
usually located on the home page they aren’t enough to keep traffic
moving through your site.Assuming that your site is offering a great
product, you also need to ensure that people visiting can get what they
need in an expedient manner. How do you do this? Include a navigation
bar on your website. Don’t rely on key word buttons to transfer
visitors via links from one page to the next. Use navigational buttons
and situate them on a bar. The trend these days is a top bar on the
home page, but bars can be placed along either the right or left sides,
on the bottom of the page or straight down the middle. Because we read
the Roman alphabet from left to right many users like having navigation
bars on the left. But there are users who prefer to have navigational
bars on the right, in close proximity to the mouse. Whatever, you
decide be sure that the options written on each button are clear. You
might want to consider having a navigation bar on every page, so that
users can move around your site with greater freedom.
Make sure
that your navigation buttons open a new window. This is an important
and sometimes overlooked feature. Many users will use their back button
to return to a previous page, but others tend to shut the window. If
you haven’t allowed each page to open into a new window, the user who
shuts the window will be exiting your site. Will they come back?Yes if
they were engaged with something and they want to continue, but take
note when they return they will be annoyed and less inclined to make
the purchases they otherwise might have.
If you aren’t going to
have a navigation bar on every page, include a key to return your
visitors to HOME. Never let them get stranded on a page and force them
into hitting the back key 50 times to return home.If this should
happen, be warned when they finally get back they are likely to run
away from HOME permanently.
Include shortcuts to save your
visitors time. A quick link will be much appreciated especially by your
repeat customers. If your site sells merchandise keep data banks of
customer information so that upon login (yes you should include a
log-in feature) the customer’s profile emerges along with credit card
information to facilitate shopping.
Informative
Pack
your site with useful well crafted information. If you are selling a
product make sure the buyer is informed about exactly what they are
buying, the cost of the product and the return policy and procedure. If
you provide information, present your text in bite-sized proportions.
It quite literally improves digestion and absorption of information.
Consider adding webcast or audio features to your site. The only thing
better than reading the information yourself is having someone else
read it to you.
Interactive
While some social
scientist might argue that our society is becoming ever increasingly
insular, with diminishing requirements for real life encounters I say
Instant Messaging was created for a reason. While it is true I haven’t
had to visit a bank teller in years, thanks to the internet I now have friends on
four of the seven continents. Online communities are alive and thriving
so capitalize on this phenomena. Include a blog on your site, or
establish a web community where your visitors can build profiles and
communicate with each other. A Q & A feature or Hot Tips
forum is a great way to stimulate discussion and encourage your
visitors to interface with each other. People may become weary or bored
with your site, but if they have made friends at your web address
they’ll keep returning like their at the Planet Hollywood buffet.
No Pop-Ups
I
can’t think of anything more annoying than to enter a website only to
be accosted by an army of emoticons, and I don’t care that they are
free. Don’t allow pop-ups. They are not only annoying they also have
the capacity to repel customers. Anyone who wants free screensavers has
already got them. There is no benefit at all to random pop-ups. If you
allow them on your site they will diminish traffic. Discreet
advertizing is acceptable on a side bar and it can be profitable. There
are a number of financial incentives for including advertisements on
your site. Just don’t over do it. Make sure they are discreet and do
not hijack customers. No one wants to be forced to listen to a sales
pitch unless it’s about a Vegas timeshare and you are being treated to
lunch at the Bellagio.
It doesn’t matter whether your website is
extolling the horrors of climate change or attempting to sell metal
shelves, use the five basic rules to attract customers, maintain and
multiply your client base while setting an example for the competition.
Your customers will thank you for it.
|
Keep up-to-date on new powerpoint templates website features and news. Be the first to know about our latest updates.
Click here to sign up
A Properly Designed Website: 5 Tips You Can't Do Without
PoweredTemplates (Credit: 102.40 $)
