When creating an affordable Web site for your small business, there are certain things to keep in mind from a design perspective that can make or break your site. Even if you do not plan to spend a fortune on your site, paying attention to each of these items you will ensure that the final product is something of which you can be proud.

Here are 5 tips for designing your small business Web site, even on a budget:

Tip #1: Make sure your Web site loads in 5 seconds or less: Have you ever tried to view a Web site only to find that it takes 10 or 20 seconds to come up on your screen? Unless it has been recommended by a friend or you have some other burning desire to visit the site, you probably likely gave up and moved on. The first 5 seconds is very important in terms of the attention span of your visitor. During that period, you need your site to load and for the visitor to be able to “get” what your site is about. If it takes longer than this, your visitors will run out of patience and leave. Tip: if you want to show off a long flash presentation, try featuring it on a page other than the home page.

Tip #2: Limit the menu bar to 5 options: Your Web site needs to be singular in purpose and focused in appearance. If your site is trying to be all things to all people, it will end up being of value to almost nobody. The simplicity and focus of your site design is reflected in your navigation and symbolized on your home page by your menu options. If you believe your site requires more than five menu options, make some of them sub-menus that are available only after the user selects one of the five main options.

Tip #3: Make clearly visible a call to action: Ever shopped at an IKEA? Their stores have a non-traditional layout that allows you to look around freely and yet literally leads you from one section to another, right on through to the multiple cash registers and food goodies waiting for you at the end of your path. Let this serve as a model for how to set up your Web site: on every page, you need to make it abundantly clear to your site visitors just exactly what it is you want them to do. Do you want them to contact you? Order your product or service? Add a comment to your Web site? Whatever it is, make this call to action very easy to spot both textually and graphically from anywhere on the site.

Tip #4: Provide free and clear access to additional help options: You do not want to lose sales (or visits, or whatever your goal for your visitors maybe be) just because you failed to give someone the chance to ask a question. Just as with your call to action, make it clear to visitors that no matter where they are on your site they can easily locate help via phone, e-mail, live chat, call back, user forum, or knowledge database. Hint: present the various options in a prioritized manner depending upon anticipated user needs.

Tip #5: Show consistency among other design elements: The look-and-feel of your site as a whole is really just a combination of all of its individual components. Pay close attention to every detailed component of your new site. Use appropriate colors and graphics, pay attention to font size, make sure your messaging is readable and makes sense, and make sure images look crisp and appealing. Items that you think are minor might form the basis for whether someone chooses to stay on your site or find that of a competitor.

Whether you are designing your own site or hiring a professional designer, pay attention to these items and you will have a winning site for your small business, even on a budget.

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Andy Doan of iConvex has been saving small businesses from Web site grief for over 6 years. Get your free, no-hassle quote at www.iConvex.com (First time customers: mention coupon code AT0045 to get a 10% discount).

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Website appearance is essential as an Internet Marketing Tool.

Introduction
In this article we will go over the most important aspects that when applied synergistically will take your web presence appearance and usability to the next level.

Building a Trustworthy Visual Presence

The importance of the visual presentation of the information on your site cannot be underestimated. The first impression to your audience is strong and memorable whether it is good or not. Unattractive websites can be a turn off. Many people think that if you didn’t place any effort in making your business look good, chances are you won’t care much about servicing your clients. Even more important, your website appearance can be utilized to evoke certain emotions in people; help building trust, emphasize on your marketing message, and as a result affect your sales.
Color Is a Powerful Weapon
Color is an important element of design that is used to create ideas, convey messages, invoke feelings. Colors often have different meanings in various cultures. Certain colors tend to invoke a similar reaction from most people – the overall difference being in the shades or tones that are used. Colors determine the psychological effect on viewers.

Color is one of the keys to good web design. Colors should be chosen wisely as they can affect the mood of the viewers. They should be chosen in such a way so as to suit the subject of the website. Choosing the right colors for a website involves more than deciding on which colors you like. Achieving color harmony is a science. Our statistics show that sometimes by changing the color scheme of your marketing materials the conversion rates can be affected by as much as 15%.

And remember that color should enhance your site’s experience, but because so many people perceive color in so many different ways, color cannot be used to define your site’s experience.

Usability and User Friendly Design

Have you ever gone to a website where the information seemed to relate to your needs, visually was very appealing, but it was impossible to figure out how to get what you went there for at the first place?

Front end usability plays an important role in the effectiveness of your site to generate leads. Consumed by today’s busy life most people simply do not have time to search for the information that they need. Information should be displayed in clear type, normal size letters and in contrast to the design. Most significantly important marketing messages must be prominent and clear.

Navigation must be easy to understand. The user should be able to get to any area of your site in no more then 2-3 mouse clicks. For complex and multi level navigation it is a good idea to use a “bread crumb” indicator displaying the current position on the website.

For example, when a website visitor is on your contact page, instead of displaying just a page titled “Contact Us” you may want to display:
Home > About the company > CONTACT US

This visually represents that visitor at the “Contact Us” page located in “About the company” section.

When a visitor is inclined to make a purchase you need to provide tools to fulfill users’ request. Whether it is a complex shopping cart solution or a simple contact form it is necessary to have fool proof systems in place.

Thank you for taking your time and reading Website appearance is essential as an Internet Marketing Tool. We encourage you to use this information to improve sales on your website today.
http://www.asfdesign.com

Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com

Deam Rass | Toronto Internet Marketing Specialist
Over the last 7 years in the industry his Internet Marketing Company – ASF Design Inc helped and continues to help dozens of customers to generate millions of dollars in Internet Sales