Designing your own website is must if you are doing business on the Internet.
There are so many factors involved in creating a web site
layout and or design that there is really no right or wrong
design. A web site that may have looked clean and crisp in the
template stage can totally change when you add your text
and other content.
The saying - less is more, often applies where creating a web
page, by having a clean crisp design with minimal graphics
your site is quicker to load and easier to navigate around
and easier to read without the distraction of flashing
animated images and banners.
The resulting layout of a web site is often a product
of the content that is added to its pages. This is where it is of the utmost importance to research
the focus of your site before you start work to create it.
The same applies if you are selling widgets, flowers, coins,
supplying information of marketing an Affiliated member
opportunity.
There are so many variables to keep in mind that it is best
to sit down with pen and paper to list all the items you will
or at least, what you want to place on your Web site. Make a list of the topics, products or services you wish
to promote. This is important later when you start promoting
your web site in search engines.
Search engines give more importance to a page that is focused
on one topic for two reasons. Firstly because search engines
want to provide the most defined search results for their customers
and secondly if a page is about one topic or product you can
optimize your keywords and content, increasing the chance
of your page appearing at the top of search results.
For web sites that have between ten to twenty pages you can
use a button or text menu bar to link to all pages. When your
site starts to grow beyond 20 pages a button or text menu can
start to take over the page. With my ezine as an example I have
created sub menus for the achieves and other related groups of
products or information.
The next step is to create a small number (6 to 10) of product
or service groups. Then you can have these 6 to 10 groups
accessible from the main menu. You can either create a small
directory or second level pages for each group, or the other
alternative is to use drop down menus.
This is where you hover your cursor over a button or link
and a sub menu drops or scrolls down with the links for that
group of products or services. The drop down menus often
created using java script. Some templates come with the scripts
included or you can search for the scripts on the net.
The layout and design of your site should use the same template
to create every page to enable your visitors ease of locating the
product and services they are searching for. The most user friendly color for the page back ground is white
with black text. White being a neutral color and black being
a contrast.
Using a clear easy to read font is important too. Pages that use
Italics are harder to read. By all means use Italics to highlight
a quote or to make a point. The same applies to bold, colored
and underlined text, use sparingly. Pages that over use bold
and multi colored text can look very amateurish.
The overall design should enhance the information you are
providing for your site visitor. Too many animations and different
colors also distract people.
Many newer high profile, high traffic sites are using less graphics
at the top of their pages. Usually there will be a logo in the top left
corner of the page as this is the first area of the page most people
see. Second they see the main headline in the center of the page
and from there they either look up to the top right corner or scroll
down the content of the page.
There are some very clever graphics used on Web sites, but it
is generally thought that a simple logo or easy to read company
name will be retained by more sites visitors than a more complex
one.
Using a simple header (logo - Company Name) at the top of your
web site is also of a higher name branding value.
Even the placing of the menu bar can have an effect. There are
No set rules here, the buttons or links can be places at the right
or left side of the page or across the top or a combination of both.
Many sites also have a number of text links at the bottom of the
page, usually company information and disclaimers etc.
Make sure you also include a site map containing links to every
page on your site. The propose is to assist search engines finding
all your pages to spider and for your site visitors so they don't get
lost. Your site map link should be easily found.
The web site layout and design is usually arrived at by the site
owner and or webmaster and as we are all individuals we all have
our personal color preferences, likes and dislikes. This being the
case, do some home work and compare your design with other
Web sites selling or promoting similar products and services.
Make sure your theme falls in line with other similar sites.
If you are going to sell home made chocolates from your web
site, I would suggest rather than showing a closed chocolate
box, you would be better advised to show a person holding
an open box with a few chocolates missing and the person
taking a bite of a chocolate with a big smile on their face.
This gives you a subliminal message of how yummy
the chocolates are and will even get your mouth watering.
A picture can express a thousand words, but too many
pictures on your site can be distracting.
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