Four Web Design Principles

By Author: Lyndon Ogden
Total Articles: 14
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So, you are embarking on a new website redesign or perhaps a new webiste atogether. You want the website to look fantastic and to be capable of generating a return.

There are lots of factors that determine (or not) the success of a website. Not least of which is how competitive a market you are in and how much notice you have taken of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) from the beginning.

Regardless of the above, here are four important ideas to take into consideration to make sure your website performs as well as it can.

1) Do not use splash pages

A splash page is the first page you see when you arrive at a website. It normally has a attractive image with words like ‘welcome' or ‘enter here'. In reality they serve no real purpose and give your visitors a reason to click on the "back" button! Do yourself a favor and give them the value of your site without the splash page.

2) Do not use too many banners on your site

Even the least sophisticated internet users have conditioned themselves to ignore banner advertisements and so you will be wasting valuable ...
... web-site real estate. Instead, provide more valuable content and incorporate relevant affiliate links into your content, to let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy. The exception to the rule is that if you have an extremely busy page, you can sell the real estate for good money. Don't go over the top though.

3) Have simple and clear navigation

If you provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu, you minimise the chance of a visitor becoming frustrated and leaving your site. Stay away from Flash based menus and multi tiered dropdown menus where possible.

4) Give the visitor a clear indication of where they are on your site

When visitors are browsing your website, ensure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site quickly. One way of doing this is by offering ‘Breadcrumbs'. Breadcrumbs often appear horizontally across the top of a webpage and usually below any title bars or headers. They provide links back to each previous page that the visitor navigated through in order to get to where they are. eBay is a good example of ‘breadcrumb' use.

For more articles about SEO Company, please visit my SEO Services website.
Lyndon Ogden is the Managing Director of Your SEO Services. A SEO Services business dedicated to passing on great advice about search engine optimization.