Building A Website That Will Attract Visitors
The goal of any website is to attract visitors in order to tell them more about the company, business or topic. There are countless websites out on the Internet, and not all of them are user-friendly. Some are so poorly designed that they really do not offer anything of value. To set your website apart from the other mediocre ones, there are design concepts that you should keep in mind. Continue reading to learn more about what these are.
A good website should have a purpose that is clearly defined. When someone lands on your website, he should immediately know what your website is all about. For instance, if you are running an online store, your home page will clearly state what it is selling and may even feature products that are on sale. If your website’s purpose is to provide information, the home page should include some kind of introduction on the topic. Therefore, give some thought to what you want your website to deliver. Keeping this purpose in mind will help you stay on track in building the pages that support this purpose.
A good website maintains consistency in design throughout all the pages. A good rule of thumb is to use a consistent header banner and navigation menu on every page. This will make it easy for your visitors to navigate through your site because they will always know where to look for links to other pages. Things like the footer or information on the margins should also have a consistent look and feel. This gives your website an orderly look that your visitors will appreciate. When a website has no organization, it creates frustration for your visitors because they will not be able to find anything.
No doubt you have encountered situations where you could not access a website’s feature because you do not have the proper plug-in installed. Remember what kind of feeling that created for you? Visitors get frustrated when their access to information is blocked because of the lack of plug-in support. Many of them would rather go to another website than to spend time downloading the plug-in. Therefore, avoid putting features on your website that require your visitor to have a special plug-in. Find other ways to offer this information.
Another thing that web visitors do not like is having to scroll left to right to read content because the page is too wide to fit onto a standard screen. This happens when the design is not fluid, which means it cannot adjust itself depending on the browsing device. This is a flaw on the designer’s part because he should remember that people browse websites on all sorts of devices now, not just on a full-size computer. Therefore, when you create the layout, make it fluid to avoid horizontal scrolling.
Keep in mind that many people are still using older browsers to browse, so avoid including too many advanced features that are only available on modern browsers. Keep your design simple.
If you can remember these tips, you can create a nice website that is attractive and user-friendly. You will get more repeat visitors who will enjoy their browsing experience.
