When it comes to website design , every part of the site should be thoroughly concentrated in order to hold visitors for a longer amount of time which is the basic goal for most webmasters and website owners. heres the 5 important tips you should must keep in mind 1) Do Not Use Splash Pages these are some beautiful images or pictures or moving graphics that are displayed when a visitor first enters your site. they normally display like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact they are just that. beautiful buckets with no real water. Some even takes around 10 seconds before pooping the "enter" button . theses are really annoying for a serious customer searching the net for a solution to his problems. do not give your visitors a reason to hit the "back" button .Show them the real content up front without any useless tweaky splash page to grab their attention 2) Excessive banners ruins the mood nowadays the complete internet newbie has trained himself the be aloof from the flashy adds that add a rainbow to your site. in fact by doing this for a few cents that you earn you will be loosing real estate value and give a reason for you customers to ignore your site further from that day. Instead try to tweak your affiliate links to fit your content in a natural way so that it doesn't obstructs the reading flow. For example if your post deals with anti aging tips for 35+ women's an a text add displaying a real success story using a specific anti aging cream will be really suitable. when the visitors click the link they are directed to the page where the testimonial draws the customer finally to your desired sales page. this step by step three way plan makes the customers feel like they want to buy a product instead of being pushed to buy if you had used the direct sales page in the add HTML in the first place 3) Avoid clumsy and Congested Navigation Panels To all bloggers and site owners please try to avoid the multi-tiered dropdown menus and the mouse point activated popup menus that are buzzing the net nowadays. its a bit difficult for people to guide their mouse to the desired click by moving along the blocks unfolding one after another in three steps to get to their desired link . a slight mishandling of the mouse renders the whole linkage to break and the user has to start over again . so hectic and time consuming . instead try a simple and clear navigation that can be easily operated even by a child that can read English. If your visitors don't know that ptc and ppc are parts of online advertising then they might miss the topic on your site simply because your drop down menu contains the ppc and ptc links with "Online advertising" as the main header ! . If they cant navigate properly they will leave your site . 4) Don't leave he user to find himself lost in your site Owing to your excellent content a visitor is deeply buried in browsing suddenly to their dismay, they are lost in your site ! They cant figure out where they are exactly in that moment . Make sure they find it clear that they are browsing which part of your site. That way they can navigate to nay sections of the site easily . like for example Health> Women's health> pregnancy> weight loss after pregnancy is the page where your visitor is . then the top of the page must display the above section clearly . so that the visitor can directly click the "Women's health" page without having to hit the back button of the site to leave your site annoyed !! . 5) Limit the use of audio(not podcast) its really annoying for a visitor to keep long in your site for long with annoying voices looping in and out suddenly breaking their focus time and again. instead if you are planning to do so make the option as podcasts or Hyper links saying "play audio" or volume control or mute option if not anything else.
Thanks Champ, I agree completely. I thought I was the only one having trouble navigating multiple drop-down cascades! And it is annoying to my co-workers when a voice or music comes on and I have to scramble to turn down the volume. And tapping my feet while waiting for a splash screen to complete I'm thinking that they must have no content to offer later. wiz
Simple is beautiful. Cramming too much into each page creates confusion. Visitors get frustrated when they have to scan through rows of links and images to find what they are looking for. By keeping your pages simple, your website will be easier to use. Design is paramount. When you meet someone for the first time, you want to make a good first impression. The same should be true for your website. The overall look and feel of your site is the first thing your visitors will notice. Colors are crucial. Color selection can make or break a website. Most of us know what it is like to visit a site that is just painful to look at. When choosing colors, use a consistent palette of colors that don't clash and make sure there is a strong contrast between the text and the background. Develop for multiple browsers. Browsers are supposed to render web pages the same way, but they don't. Therefore, make sure to check your website on multiple browsers to make sure everything appears correctly. It is best to catch problems ahead of time instead of relying on visitor complaints.
There are fast growing mobile users among the internet surfers. Therefore make sure to design your site to fit into mobile devices as well.
The main thing to take away is that the website should be useful to the user, instead of a self-indulgent or ego-driven display by the webmaster.