Designing A website? Here Are Some Tips | Search Engine Optimization

By LucasHeijn
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Word Count: 543

Your website is the heart of your business. It's much like the headquarters of an off-line company. For this reason, it is very important to practice good design principles this make sure that your sites reach the maximum number of people, and thus make that maximum number of sales.

Plan Navigation

keep your navigation simple. It must give clear direction on how to navigate your site. It must be uncluttered and easy to follow. Make sure you avoid confusion, if you're visitor becomes confused. They were just leave it and go somewhere else.

Simplicity is the key word. let's say your site had 1000 or more articles. Your visitor is looking for a particular article, you need to make it simple to find. You can do this by using an SQL driven database, or just an index. This means that your visitor is now able to locate a particular article easily. By providing this index or database driven search you have created a hassle free way for your visitor to find what he was looking for.

Your goal in navigation should be to keep it so simple that even a young child would be able to navigate your site. Multi tiered drop-down menus and complicated flash-based navigation should be avoided. If your visitor can't work out how to navigate your site they will leave.

It is important to avoid confusion. If your visitors become confused you will lose them. At times your visitors will be deeply engrossed in surfing your site. Your pages must make it possible for them to know where they are, and how to get back to the main page.

A few more pointers that may help.

#1 Do not use splash pages.

On some websites the first page you come to is a pretty page that welcomes you to the site and may also have something like "click here to enter". This is a splash page. It serves no real purpose other than to be pretty as often they are highly graphical pages. The reason to avoid splash pages is to give your visitor no reason to click the back button.

#2 Banner ads don't work. be careful not to waste too much space on them

I would almost say that I failed to see why banner ads are used today. Nobody even bothers to look at them anymore. For this reason, I would suggest that instead of using banner ads you provide content for your visitors. You are also able to weave in affiliate links into this content. This would help your visitors to feel when they buy that they are buying because they want to and will not feel pushed.

#3 Avoid Audio

Have you ever visited a site and you are trying to concentrate on the content, but find the audio overwhelming. What did you do? There are a few options. One is turn down the sound on your computer or hopefully, there is a volume control on the site. If you have plenty of content on your site you will be better off not using audio. If you are determined to have audio on your site, make sure there is a volume control or muting available.

About the Author

Need help in setting up your up own web site? Information is available in free videos and articles from LinksParadise. This a free site with information and videos on such topics as How to build a website, creating web site graphics and more.

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