This article will provide you with 30 tips and helpful information to use when designing a new website.
There are some very
important issues that you need to take into account when building a new
website. The following 30 points will guide you along the process and will help
you to avoid some of the mistakes.
Tips on building your website:
Decide whether you are going to built your site yourself
or use a professional
If you are going to do it
yourself make sure that you have the necessary tools
There are a number of
reputable DIY web site providers on the web to choose from (Microsoft
Office Live Small Business or Yahoo! Small Business to name two)
If you are going to use a
professional, use someone like websitepros.com to assist you with the
decision making process.
Choose the correct web hosts,
use Web Hosting Review, Hosting Review or consumer Search to assist you
Choose a merchant account
service (Pay Pal is one of the more well known providers)
If you are not using a designer to manage
your photos and graphics you need a tool (try Microsoft Digital Image
Suite, PhotoPlus or Quick Web Photo Resizer)
General design principles:
Keep it clean
Never use dark text on dark
backgrounds
Choose colours carefully
Make sure that your customers
can always navigate easily around your website
Pages a website should have:
Contact us,
Testimonials
Privacy policy
FAQ
Free Goodies page
About us
Confirmation page that
acknowledges an order and thanks the visitor
Avoid these mistakes:
Do not have a confusing site structure
Do not make the menu to
complicated
Do not laps onto industry
jargon
Do not over promise and under
deliver
The following should be incorporated:
Pay attention to contrast and sharpness throughout your
website
Know HTML but only what you
need to know
Add PayPal buttons
Add an embedded video player
Add slide shows
Let visitors open new browser
windows from a link
Add maps and directions
Add a hit counter (resources:
htmlgoodies.com, websitetips.com)
Thank you for
reading this article. I hope that the information is of value to you and can
assist you with building your new website. Make use of a website optimization
service provider if you get stuck. Good luck!!
