Of course this isn't meant to be a full-fledged course
on website design -- I hope to tell you the main things that you should be doing
to design an effective website.
First of all, what determines whether
or not your website is "effective?" Whether or not your visitors come, are pleased
by what they see, and return! And, whether or not they feel your website is excellent
enough to tell their friends about, write about in their ezines, or submit to
any of the "Best of the Web" awards out there is a good starting point.
Here are the things that your website absolutely MUST HAVE to be successful in
the home business world:
1.) An easy-to-understand navigational system.
Can your visitors get around easily, or are they easily lost? Do you have a link
to get back to your home page and/or "table of contents" on EVERY page or only
a select few? What if someone decides that your website is so great they decide
to link to one of your secondary pages? Ten times out of eight, other Webmasters
WON'T tell you when they've linked to you. So, if they link to a page that isn't
connected to your home page ... how are they supposed to find it?? It doesn't
occur to most people to take the base of the URL they've visited. 90% of the time,
you've just lost a potential customer.
2.) Your name and email address
listed on your website. Having an email address is just not enough. Who are
your visitors supposed to address their mail to, and exactly WHAT are you hiding
from?? What's the point of NOT putting your name on your web pages? Do you just
forget, does it not occur to you, or are you afraid people are going to be able
to figure out where you live and come stalk you just by having access to your
first and last name?? Whatever the reasoning, it's absolutely ridiculous. Not
having your full name plainly listed on your website is ruining your credibility
and the credibility of your business. So, let me break it down for you ... JUST
DO IT! If you don't plan to list your full name and email address on your website
as the BARE MINIMUM, you may as well pack it up now and call it quits.
3.) A compatible screen size for most, (if not all), browsers. 800x600
pixels is an ideal standard for your web pages. You can control the width of your
website by using tables, and setting the width of the outer table to the maximum
size. So in this case, you'd set the table width to 600 pixels. If you're using
percentages instead of straight pixel width, set the percentage to no more than
about 85-90%.
4.) A reasonable background image and color scheme.
Those orange and green backgrounds with bright red text are just NOT with
it -- no matter what the amateurs say. Stick to a background/text color combination
that's actually READABLE. That makes sense, right? If you have to squint just
to read the words on your pages, your background is WAY out of line, and your
site needs a major color scheme makeover! Use BLACK text, or very dark colored
text on a WHITE or very light colored background. Save the white on black backgrounds
for pages that DON'T have a lot of text on them. But, if you feel that you absolutely
MUST have those stars, triangles, or dinosaurs cluttering up your background,
make sure that you set the image as the background for the page, and put a plain
WHITE table on every page that will contain text. If done right, this can be a
very pleasing addition to any web page.
5.) Use mood colors. This
one isn't mandatory, but it can be helpful when setting the tone of your website.
For example, green is usually referred to as a "concentration" color. So, on pages
that have a lot of text, use a green background pattern (with your text in a white/light
colored table) or green highlights throughout the page. But, be careful ... dark
green is seen as a money color, while the regular, "standard" green is the concentration
color. You can use color to your advantage in website building, to make your visitors
feel energized, relaxed, focused, more ready to make a purchase, or almost any
other effect. You're only limited by your imagination! (And, of course ... color
blindness.) ;-)
If you follow those five basic website design tips outlined
above, designing your first website (or touching up an existing one) shouldn't
be such a horror! Read all of the website design articles that you can to get
a good working knowledge of design, and the do's and don'ts of effective design
habits.
There are a lot of quality articles (recently updated) at: http://homebasedheaven.com/articles/#design
The articles on that site are some of the best that I've seen online, and
the site is updated regularly. Check out those articles if you never read another
word on website design!
