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Helpful Design Tips
For A Successful Site
by Dan
Grossman
Whether you've
yet to start building your website or you've
already created it, you should look over these
helpful tips
for creating an efficient and well-designed site.
THE GOAL OF YOUR SITE
When you view the homepage of your site, is the goal
immediately
conveyed? Your visitors should know as soon as that
page loads what it's about, what you can provide for
them, and
where they can go.
NAVIGATION SYSTEM
No page of your site should be more than 3 clicks
away from the main page! This is a simple but very
effective rule to
follow
when designing the navigation system for your website. If
a page is
more than 3 clicks away, it's buried
too
deep. Don't make the surfers at your site have to look
too hard
for what they're looking for. A search engine for your
site
is also a plus too.
LOAD TIME
Many website owners simply ignore this very
important factor in designing sites. If the page takes
more than 30
seconds to load
the person will most likely leave. If they begin
navigating your site and learn that each page takes 40
seconds
to load, they'll probably look elsewhere for the
information.
USEFUL, RELEVANT, UNIQUE CONTENT
Unless your site provides a product or services, its
main focus will be on the content it provides. Those
coming to your
site
will be looking for unique and relevant information on
the topic of
your site. In order to succeed, you need to
provide unique content on a regular basis. If you want
surfers to
become repeat visitors, you'll need to provide them with
a reason
to return.
CONTACT INFORMATION
It's increasingly important to provide full contact
information on
your site. Directories such as Yahoo! have
begun
to check for contact information before listing sites,
and
visitors should be able to contact you too. If you sell a
product or
service, people will probably want to get in contact with
you
with their questions or feedback before buying. If your
site
provides information, providing an email address or
contact
form gives your visitors a way to send in feedback or
report
errors.
Hopefully these tips will help you build a better
site or enhance your existing one. Consider those 5
things and you'll
have a
site worth visiting!
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