A Properly Designed Website: 5 Tips You Can't Do Without

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.