The design of your website is vitally important to its success. By ensuring your site can be easily used by visitors, is visually pleasing, and contains tons of great content, you can generate a lot of visitors who have a greater chance of returning. The tips below serve as a good starting point for making a great web site.
Add a prominent tagline to your website. This is a statement or motto to define your business. You only have about 10 seconds to gain and keep hold of your visitors’ attention from the time they first hit your site.
In order for your website to be successful, it must work properly regardless of the browser that is used. You should therefore make certain that all of your web pages are thoroughly tested on a variety of browsers. Each browser is a little different, and a site that looks fine in Firefox may look wrong in Safari, Chrome, or Internet Explorer. Verify the way in which your pages load in all major browsers prior to your official launch.
Include an easy way for visitors to search your site content. If visitors to your site need something specific, they look for a search box first. If your site doesn’t have one, they will probably go to a website that does. The ideal placement is the upper right hand corner of your page.
Make sure you give your users the option to cancel a given action if they choose to. Types of such actions would include registering an email, filling out forms, or browsing your site for archives or topics. If you don’t give visitors the opportunity to cancel their actions, you are depriving them of control, and that can prove fatal to your website.
Use a well known software program that is known for getting the job done to help create a professional looking website. Using this type of program will help a website look more professional in a short amount of time. If Photoshop is not something you have access to, then being able to create a good site could take some time.
Make sure to include a way to get feedback from site visitors. That way, if they are having a problem or there are missing items on your pages, you will be made aware and can fix the problem. If your visitors feel like they are a part of your site, they will want to return.
Make compelling and fascinating web content. If it grabs your visitors attention, they will stick around and return for more. If you have insightful, useful content that people want to read about, you are much more likely to have repeat visitors.
Internet Explorer
Make sure you optimize your website for older Internet Explorer versions like IE7 and IE8. While it is often viewed as a sub par browser, a large number of users are still using old versions of this browser. They don’t render many elements in compliance with web standards, so workarounds are required. Specifically, you should learn about a “box model bug” which troubled Internet Explorer for years.
Make an effort to create a high quality “About Us” webpage. Most websites don’t have very interesting copy in this area. You can share personal information, education history and career choices that have lead you to this point in your life. Give visitors insight into you, the designer. Help them understand how you began designing websites, which other designers you consider to be mentors, and where you are going from here.
When people hit the creative wall as you will do at some point, look towards electronic information available all over the web to bust through. You can look at an infinite number of websites to obtain inspiration. When you find things you like, think about how you can use those ideas or even improve upon them. You can’t just borrow ideas if you want your site to be a success. You need to improve on them as well.
If you have some ideas for more than one website, you should reserve a name for your domain, now. Show your creativity and choose what you want, but you must reserve it as soon as you can to have it for later. There may be others thinking along the same line. You cannot count on being unique all the time.
It’s fine to have a new user fill out a CAPTCHA when he registers for you site, but after that, he shouldn’t see another CAPTCHA. The captcha triggers a response from the viewer that he or she now has to perform complex problem solving just to view a simple webpage. Most visitors will simply leave the website and use another resource instead.
These tips should make it easier for you to create a website that speaks to your target market with an appealing, easy-to-use format. You will benefit financially by utilizing the tips here.