| Your
home page should indicate clearly what your web site is about.
An informative, easy to navigate home page is the most important
factor in keeping your visitors interested. From your home page,
a visitor will determine if he or she will stay at your web site
and click a few of your links or leave to find another web site
that is more appealing. Make any special offers or discounts you
provide clearly visible on your home page and include navigational
tools that make it easy for a visitor to switch to another page
and make purchases. If you include a flash intro on your home
page, give visitors the option to skip the intro if he or she
desires. Your
navigation structure is critical. Do not experiment with navigation
and keep it the same on all pages. Place the navigation in a
location that is familiar to the average web site visitor. Consistency
is the most important thing in deciding where to put your navigation.
Across the top or on one side or another is very familiar to
most internet surfers and make sure it is in the same place
on all pages within your site.
The font size you
choose should be easy to read. If your font is too small many
people will not even bother to read it. The best font size is
twelve-thirteen points. Your line length should also be easy
to read. Sixty to seventy characters is appropriate for most
material.
You will have some
text that you want to emphasize. Do this tastefully and do not
emphasize too much of your text. If you have many words and
characters in bold print, your web site will resemble a battlefield
and be hard to read. Include graphics such as a photo of your
product. The photo should be clear and of a manageable file
size. If your file size is too large it will increase the time
it takes your page to fully load and visitors may lose interest.
Test your web site
frequently to make sure all links are working perfectly. Your
potential customers will not take the time to notify you if
your links are broken and they may go to your competitors if
they cannot easily click through the links on your site. Make
sure your text is spell checked and grammatically correct. Your
web site visitors will judge your business by the impression
they get from your web site. |
