"10 Tips For Creating Web Sites That Work"

Here are ten things everyone should know about when creating web sites to help your conversion rates with your internet marketin. If you don't do these simple things you are throwing away money. 

1. Formulate a plan
Before you build a Web site, consider the following:
• What is the purpose of the web site? Are you selling a product, advocating policy, educating readers or posting volunteer opportunities?
• Who is your audience?
• How do you plan to promote your site?
• What payment system do you plan to use?
• Who will design your site and for what cost?
• How often will you need your site updated?

2. Know your audience
Understanding your primary and secondary audience is important for any project you undertake.
For example, an older audience may appreciate a Web site that has a larger font size. Studies show that children are more apt to click on a banner ad than an adult; find out who you are serving and tailor the page to meet their needs.

3. Design for multiple platforms, browsers and screen resolutions
Besides knowing the demographics of your users, knowing what type of computer they use is helpful as well. While the differences between the newer versions of Internet Explorer on the Mac and Windows platforms are few, older versions display Web pages very differently.

For example, a resolution of 640x480 means that your monitor, whether 15", 17" or bigger, will display 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels long. The bigger the monitor (and often the better the video card), the larger resolution you can use.

You should never force users scroll horizontally to view content, so designing your Web site for a screen resolution of 800x600 is a safe practice. Most new computers default to 1024x768 on a 17" monitor; however, if you have an audience that is not especially high-tech, they may be viewing your page on a smaller monitor with a lower resolution.

Older versions of browsers for testing purposes can be downloaded at: http://browsers.evolt.org/

4. Provide consistency in navigation
Users who cannot find items on your page will leave your site. Provide a consistent navigation structure with a link to your home page to allow predictability and ease of use. Also, do not be too clever in your site design. Unless you know your audience prefers abstract images and metaphors, keep it simple; use common names such as "about", "contact", and "help".  Also, when posting links for other sites make sure that they open in a new window, you don't want to lose your visitor.  The Web Developers Virtual Library has a good article on navigation, it is older but most of the information holds true:
http://www.wdvl.com/Location/Navigation/101/

A site map is another important feature for a couple of reasons.  One reason is the user will be able to find everything they need quickly and two the search engines spiders will find all your pages quicker which means it is one more way that you could get indexed quicker.

5. Write quality code
I know that coding is sometimes scary for a lot of beginners but, not all hypertext markup language (HTML) is created equally. What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Web design tools such as Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dreamweaver produce different HTML code that may create unexpected results in some of the different browsers.

Use an external HTML validator to verify your code so you know that your visitors will see your site the way you intended: http://validator.w3.org/

6. Create accessible web sites
Allow all users, including those with disabilities, access to your site by following consistent guidelines; ensuring that your documents have alt tags for images and scalable fonts is a good start towards making your pages more useable for everyone.

7. Effective use of fonts, images and colors
Graphics, colors and logos are all important to personalizing your page. However, misuse can drive away visitors. For example, a font you interpret as "fun" (e.g. Comic Sans) may be viewed as immature by a visitor.

Basic human psychology is something you should consider when designing your site.  Think of your targeted visitor, their wants and what will trigger the emotional response you want from them.  Below are some quick tips to follow regarding these issues:

• Use a sans-serif font such as Verdana or Arial for displaying text, as these fonts are easier to read on a monitor. Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman and Georgia fonts look best on printed material

• Avoid use of italics; blocks of italicized text are difficult to read on a monitor

• Optimize any graphics; large images may take a long time to download for a visitor using a dial-up modem -use a thumbnail image instead

• Animated images are not cute. Pixilated, moving graphics were popular in 1996, but have lost much of their appeal on today's Web sites for the common user

• Keep the font and style consistent by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

• Create a color palette and use it consistently; depending on the mood of your page.  Refer to the Wheel of Color for basics and recommendations: 

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb263947.aspx

8. Writing and copy, just a couple of things to remember 
• Most important speak the language of your visitor
• Omit needless words; don't ramble on too much (although a long sales letter does convert better than a short one)
• Define acronyms, if this is a first time visitor they may not know what you are talking about.  Define the acronym the first time you use it, then you can use the acronym elsewhere on the site
• Check your spelling, one of the most common mistakes and yet the one that is easiest to fix

9. Promote your site
Ensure each page contains relevant keywords, a brief, accurate description in the head of your HTML document, is titled appropriately, and sponsoring or related organizations provide links to your site. The more links to your Web site from other pages results in a higher ranking on some search engines.  I am not an SEO expert but do have some resources I will share with you at another time.

10. Verify and credit sources of information
Give credit where credit is due; plagiarizing copy, design or images without prior permission is unethical. Be sure to acknowledge and verify credibility of all sources. While it is not technically impossible to steal code, or articles off the Web, it does not lend credibility to your own organization.

Talk to you later,
Connie Casparie
"The Creative Nerd"