Website Designing: General Web Design Guidelines

The goal of most web designers is to create an attractive, easily accessible and functional website that will convince the visitor to do something. Creating such a website requires good graphic design, easy and intuitive site navigation, logical site layout and good web copy. The following suggestions are general web design guidelines.

Web Content

You want the visitor to see you as a knowledgeable information source and/or a reputable business. Poor grammar and spelling will immediately reduce your credibility. Remember that people use the internet to find information. For more details visit to www.javascript-magic.com .Whether you are selling your own product or recommending someone else’s products, you must first provide valuable information to the visitor or they will click away and find a website that gives them what they what they want.

Cross Browser Compatibility

There are at least a hundred different browsers in use. You must design your website to work properly in the most widely used browsers. To do that you may not be able to use all of the really great special effects that are available because they may not be supported in most browsers.

Even though most web browsers are free, people do not necessary bother to upgrade to the latest versions. The average surfer may not know how to upgrade their browser or have the attitude, “If it works, don’t fix it.” Remember your visitor may have a PC, a MAC, a Linux box, a PDA or a cell phone and they all use different browsers.

Good web design requires your web pages to work in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Opera and Safari at a minimum. Validating your HTML code will help but the final test is to view your website in different browsers running on different platforms.

Graphics and Photos

Web surfers are impatient and studies show that most people will click away if a webpage takes longer than 10 seconds to load. Always optimize your photos and other graphic files to have as small a size as possible without sacrificing picture quality.

Always use the height and width attributes on the picture so the rest of the page can load while the graphic files is downloading. Use the ALT HTML tag so people with graphics turned off and those using hand held devices know what the picture is supposed to be.

Background Colors

If you use anything other than white behind text, be sure to specify link colors otherwise the user’s browser defaults will determine what color the links are which can make them unreadable.

Multimedia

Multimedia is composed of flash movies, video clips, audio clips and background music. Always use streaming media because it reduces download time. Make sure the visitor can stop and start multimedia files or in the case of flash introductions, skip them if they want. That way people with slow connections or devices that don’t support multimedia can ignore them. To know more logon to www.google-friendly-page.com .Also, put any important information presented in multimedia in text as well so the visitor has access to that information without using multimedia. If a plug-in is needed to use the multimedia, always provide a link to it so the user can install it. Finally, always remember the 10-second rule for site loading when deciding to use multimedia.

Site Navigation

Site navigation should be simple and intuitive. Studies have shown if a visitor cannot access the information they want within three clicks, they will leave the site. This is called the 3-click rule. Every area of your website should be reachable within three clicks from anywhere else on the site. If you use anything other than simple text links, make sure to test your navigation in all the major browsers.

Links

Periodically test all site links to be certain that they are valid. Nothing chases a visitor off faster than broken links. There are several free online services that will periodically check your links.

Frames

Avoid using frames, since they make it difficult to bookmark individual pages on your web site and you want people to bookmark pages so they can come back.

Summary

Good Web design is a combination of common sense and good planning. Your site should be attractive and easy to use and most importantly provide the user with the information or services they want.

The goal of most web designers is to create an attractive, easily accessible and functional website that will convince the visitor to do something. Creating such a website requires good graphic design, easy and intuitive site navigation, logical site layout and good web copy. The following suggestions are general web design guidelines

Information about the Author:

Web Hosting Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

The Importance Of Web Copy In Internet Marketing

A sales copy is a part of traditional marketing and advertising activities and is sent out to prospective buyers with the aim to inform them of a product, how it will benefit them and to provide related information in a way that induces them to buy the product. Similarly a web copy is what is used for selling something through the Internet. However, despite the similarity of purpose, a tradition sales copy sent by direct mail and a web copy are quite different.

Traditional marketing and advertising and web marketing and advertising are very different from each other. Some people find Internet marketing concepts to be rather unusual. Others refuse to accept that web marketing is any different from traditional marketing. Even as web marketing continues to apply techniques used in traditional marketing instead of established techniques in copywriting, it works successfully for advertising and marketing on the web.

One of the main differences between a traditional sales copy and a web copy is that the former is considered more effective, when it is short and targeted.

It is used for captivating the attention of the audience. If interested the prospective buyer either places an order over the phone or goes to a store for making a purchase. A web copy on the other hand encompasses the whole process of advertising and sales. Being part of e-commerce solutions, which are fully automated, the web copy does much more than the traditional sales copy, in as much as it works like a full fledged sales person by introducing the visitor to products and services being offered, explaining and highlighting product features and benefits, handling objections, requesting the visitor to act and finally closing the sale.

While preparing your sales copy, you need to be sensitive to the ways of expression, unique to the Internet. This will help you to create an effective web copy that users will find interesting. Foremost among them is the style of writing. Netizens find themselves more comfortable with information that is presented in a relaxed and informal way, unlike that contained in direct mail sales material, which contain exaggerations and hyperbole.

The writing style of the web copy needs to be engaging and friendly with a soft sell approach. The web copy should contain detailed information that extends a personal touch creating a relaxed feeling while reading and not like something being thrust at the reader for buying. Internet users do not prefer such message types. Therefore, while reading your web copy, the readers should feel as if someone is talking to them and providing them with information they were looking for and which they did not have earlier. Even when the purpose is to secure a sale, the tone should not be ‘salesly’.

You need to keep the reader interested in your web copy. You must provide pertinent and up to date information, right from the beginning aiming at conveying your message directly and clearly. Once your message gets through, the reader will be able to take immediate action by going to your sales cart/order form page. Remember, if you are not able to hold your visitor’s interest, he may just click out of your site and the entire effect of your web copy will be wiped out.

Get free articles in various topic for your website or blog content as much as you want at Article Directory: http://www.articlecompilation.com

Peter Brittain is a director of an Australian internet marketing company – Slinky, and is an expert in SEO.