Fortune-Magnet News

Some studies have reported that consumers despise these intrusive and annoying advertisements and even feel “violated” and “molested” by their presence. Online consumers are goal-oriented and perceive online advertisements to be even more intrusive than those in other media. Further, online consumers develop negative attitudes towards the advertisements which then lead them to develop intentions to not return to the site.

An important goal of website designers is that users will retain the content to promote subsequent visits and/or referrals to other potential visitors. Ads compete for attention and raise cognitive effort, whether reading or avoiding them, interfering with use of the site and reducing the likelihood of retaining the site’s content. The more mental energy extended to non-website material, the less retention of website content can be expected.

Research has shown that interruptions have a negative impact on emotion and well-being, and lead to increases in effort expenditures. Although any advertisement can be classified as an interruption, one that requires a user action to remove it, like a pop-up ad, will cause an increased expenditure of effort, reducing retention of website content. Because an in-line ad requires less interruption and mental energy than a pop-up ad, we expect higher website retention levels in those subjects receiving in-line ads as compared to pop-up ads.

What about retention of ad content? Common sense tells us that ads that are most visible will be remembered. However, deeper consideration of web advertising reveals that while pop-up ads are more interruptive than in-line ads, requiring a user to act to remove them, they appear on the screen for a shorter time period because users tend to close them immediately. In-line ads remain visible for a much longer period, and users are thus more likely to see them in their peripheral vision. It is expected that this longer time will increase user retention of the ad content.

This is critical. Your website design is the first impression you make on your customers and visitors. There are a few sites in my favorites and bookmarks that I consider poorly designed. I still have them, because they have information I want. Lucky for the site owner that their content was that good! But one day I will find another site with the same information and a better design. Then guess who will be in my favorites and who will be left out? Maybe your content is great too, but don’t take chances on a poor design. Think how much more repeat traffic and referred traffic you will get if you have both great content and great design.

Design Taste Varies - OK, design is a matter of taste and target audience to some degree. What looks good to one visitor may not be so great to another. Here we have the old adage of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. But there are solid basics that go into good site design. Creating a distinctive visual style and applying it consistently is the best way to bind a series of subjects and web pages together.

Layouts - The layout of your site is an important design element. A webpage is a document, plain and simple. It is like formatting a letter, an outline, a report, or an advertisement. Establish a layout grid and a style for handling your text and graphics, then stick with it to build a consistent rhythm and unity across all the pages of your site. Make it easy to follow, pleasing to the eye. Learn to use tables and nested tables, lists, and even well designed frames for controlling layouts.

Color - Color has a lot to do with target audience as well. What appeals to a teenager may not work with a target audience of baby-boomers, and so forth. But anybody can appreciate color coordination. Color coordination can be learned. Yes, it’s a lot easier if you have a natural “knack” for these things, but you can learn basic color coordination techniques that make the difference between “tacky, yuk!!!” and “soothing to the eye”.

Safe Colors - Everyone does NOT have 16 million colors on their computer. Learn to use the websafe 216 colors. Notice that’s 216 colors, not 256 colors. This is a matter of video card capability and you are at the mercy of the viewer’s personal computer system. Your best bet is to stick to 6 x 6 x 6 bit color resolution (216 colors) to cover the majority of Internet users. The 216 color palette gives you plenty for design options. Sure, not as many as 256 colors or 16 million, but still plenty to accomplish what you want or need to do with color.

Page Load Time - Now I’ll be the first person to admit that I have made *personal* web pages which have large graphics or music .wav files and other things that take awhile to load. The point here is, they are my personal websites, *not* my professional or commercial websites. I may use these long loading pages for demo-ing several techniques, or chatting with friends and other developers, but never never never for professional site design (unless my client insists, in which case I do not use their site as a demo to other potential clients!). This doesn’t mean you have to give up everything on professional sites. It just means take it easy, use only one high-load-time element or two, learn to compress your graphics properly, and if you’ve got that much “stuff” then break it up into more than one page.

Plan and think about your content. Think big, have a vision of at least a 100 page site. The pages should have “real content”, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright… etc pages.

STEP 2: Buy Domain name:

Invest in an easily brandable domain. You may want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains will go no where, whereas branding and name recognition are the in thing. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to Search Engines. Get them

STEP 3: Site Design:

As a rule of the thumb: develop for MS Internet Explorer. As for text content, it should out weigh the html content. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring.

Use less of these heavy stuff: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for javascripts is just one of them).

Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.

Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Visit Google.com and learn from them. Simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.

Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request.

If you need help, visit http://www.xcelweb.com for the latest web design packages.

STEP 4: Check Page Size:

The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can.

STEP 5: Build Content:

Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture.com’s keyword suggestor and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

STEP 6: Check Keywords’ placing:

Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and spell check it. Spell checking is becoming important as search engines are moving to auto correction during searches.

Lead your viewers to the starting point and then direct them through your site without confusing them.

Here are some excellent tips that can help you develop a user friendly site and please your visitors senses. Give yourself a chance before they get away.

1. Use lots of white space.

Don’t feel that because you have a whole screen that you need to fill it up with stuff. Your page should follow a clean outline. Include your site name at the very top. Below that list the subject of your page and below that expand on your topic. Leave adequate space between each section. Don’t cram a lot of pictures and ads. If you have an ad keep it off to the side or subtly intersperse it between your text. The idea is not to overwhelm your reader.

2. Don’t use animation and flashing objects.

As advertisers we feel the need to get our viewers attention. This is important but we need to do it gracefully. Flashing objects and scrolling images distract your visitor and take away from the content. If your product is better demonstrated with animation or some other multi-media, allow your viewer to select the option. Don’t force it on them.

3. Every page of your site should contain an ‘about’ link.

The internet can be a rather cold and quiet environment. If someone can come to your site and find out about who you are and what you are about, they can feel a little better about doing business with you or taking advice from you. Always include your business address and phone number and email address as well. This lets viewers know that you are serious about your business and that you welcome contact.

4. Include a ‘Privacy’ Link.

Viewers like the reassurance that you have a policy that follows privacy guidelines. They want to know that you will not sell or give away their information. In these days of rampant spam, your privacy policy needs to be prominently displayed. Many viewers and business partners won’t do business with you unless you have it.

5. Always keep your links in blue.

Why does that matter you might say? It’s an expectation that viewers have along with the links being underlined. There’s certainly no law that says they need to be as such but people spend a lot of time on the internet and it’s good practice to keep your navigation consistent and recognizable. If it’s not you may lose out on clicks.

6. Keep navigation consistent.

Keep your site’s navigation consistent. What you do on your index page should be done the same way on the rest of your site’s pages. Keep the colors consistent as well. Don’t force your viewers to relearn each page of your site. Keep your navigation bars and links the same for each page. 

Websites which have only sales pitch as their main content are very much like these salespersons who arrive when you are not looking for them. Visitors go web browsing primarily looking for specific information and not sales offer. When a visitor arrives at a website which offers information she finds useful and solutions to her problems, she is likely to visit again.

A website should not be designed only for selling something, though that may be purpose for setting up the website in the first place. The website should provide information and commentaries which can pre-sell the product to the visitor. It should attract targeted visitors interested in the content. Pre-selling arouses interest in the product prompting the visitor to visit again. She will try to satisfy herself with information provided, testimonials, bio of the webmaster, links to related sites and other considerations before she will actually buy the product. In a way, pre-selling tries to guide her in this direction and makes it easier for her to make a decision.

People are more inclined to buy what they “want” instead of what they “need”. Once they set their minds on buying something, they look for reasons (or call it excuses) why they should buy, only to satisfy themselves, though the decision for the purchase has already been taken. Pre-selling provides reasons which they find “compelling” enough to part with money.

The website which has valuable content the visitor is looking for produces a pleasant experience for her. By pre-selling she is made to develop trust in the website and the webmaster and will look at the recommendations with an open mind. Once the visitor decides to buy, the website should ensue that she does not face any problems in making actual purchase. The links provided for the order page should work properly and the whole process should be kept simple. It will be very unfortunate if the prospective buyer calls off the purchase only because she finds that the ordering process does not work.

Some studies have reported that consumers despise these intrusive and annoying advertisements and even feel “violated” and “molested” by their presence. Online consumers are goal-oriented and perceive online advertisements to be even more intrusive than those in other media. Further, online consumers develop negative attitudes towards the advertisements which then lead them to develop intentions to not return to the site.

An important goal of website designers is that users will retain the content to promote subsequent visits and/or referrals to other potential visitors. Ads compete for attention and raise cognitive effort, whether reading or avoiding them, interfering with use of the site and reducing the likelihood of retaining the site’s content. The more mental energy extended to non-website material, the less retention of website content can be expected.

Research has shown that interruptions have a negative impact on emotion and well-being, and lead to increases in effort expenditures. Although any advertisement can be classified as an interruption, one that requires a user action to remove it, like a pop-up ad, will cause an increased expenditure of effort, reducing retention of website content. Because an in-line ad requires less interruption and mental energy than a pop-up ad, we expect higher website retention levels in those subjects receiving in-line ads as compared to pop-up ads.

What about retention of ad content? Common sense tells us that ads that are most visible will be remembered. However, deeper consideration of web advertising reveals that while pop-up ads are more interruptive than in-line ads, requiring a user to act to remove them, they appear on the screen for a shorter time period because users tend to close them immediately. In-line ads remain visible for a much longer period, and users are thus more likely to see them in their peripheral vision. It is expected that this longer time will increase user retention of the ad content.

Everyone wants an attractive professional looking website. But too often businesses think they need a GLITZY site with all the bells and whistles when what they really need is a functional site that attracts customers.

Creating a user-friendly website doesn’t require a lot of money or a staff of professional, high priced, designers. If fact, they can be the very thing that leads you to go overboard.

All you really need to know is what your customer wants and how to deliver it in a way that even a first-time visitor can understand.

How do you know what your customers want? Listen! Keep track of the questions they ask when they visit or call. Then make sure those questions are answered right on the site.

Since the web uses hypertext, it connects to information in many different ways. Unlike a library, where a book just sits on a shelf, a website should allow pages to be accessed the way users think about information.

You will have a better site when it is designed to support flexible human behavior and not just one path for people to follow.

Visitors will not stick around for slow overloaded sites, that might have looked good but just aren’t worth the wait. Remember that for the next few years, most users will access the Internet through slow modems. So web page design that addresses the needs of the masses, has a better chance to be seen and appreciated.

Your pages must download quickly, or users may not only, not follow the links, but may also have trouble navigating the site. People are more likely to get lost on slow sites than fast ones and more likely to leave and not return.

Even on the Internet, it’s true that buyers want to see what they are buying; but over loading a page with slow loading images of products can be a big mistake. You would be better off with small (thumbnail) images and follow with larger images on succeeding pages.

So why are so many people spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for someone to build them a custom shell for their content? The answer is simple: because they don’t know about web site templates. Or maybe more accurately: they know about templates, but don’t know how to utilize them. Did you know that many web designers actually buy web site templates that they then customize to meet their clients needs?

A website template is the fastest, easiest, and most cost effective path to building your website. Where custom design can take weeks or months to finish, and can run you in the thousands of dollars, web templates are relatively inexpensive, and can be ready to publish in a matter of days. Many high-quality templates are available for under $100.

There are a few different options for finding web templates. There are membership based dealers that offer a one-time or monthly subscription fee which buys you the right to download their entire collection. Then there are companies that deal on a one-by-one basis, selling a single template for use with one website. Personally, I find the one-by-one type companies offer much higher quality designs. Not to mention the aspect of exclusivity. If ten thousand people subscribe to a membership based template company, and one thousand of them like the XYZ template, how many websites are going to look exactly the same? You do the math.

No matter what your web designer tells you, simplicity is best when building your small business website. While having a website with lots of bright colors and flashy interactive graphics might win web design awards, it will probably not help you win customers. In fact, the more complicated your web design, the higher the risk that your sales message will be lost amidst all the fancy bells and whistles on your site.

For most small businesses, a simple and elegant four or five page website is all they need to get the job done. As an added bonus, such sites are inexpensive when compared to flashier multimedia sites. If you want your small business website to increase your profits instead of emptying your pocketbook, pay close attention to the following design guidelines when you build your site.

Make Your Website Easy to Read

In order for your website to get sales and/or leads, your small business website design needs to be user and consumer-friendly - that means it needs to be easy to read. So, short sentences and paragraphs, dark text on white (or very, very light) backgrounds and lots of white space should be the norm.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say it again - the purpose of having a website for your small business isn’t to win design awards. It’s to convey information about your product or service that guides the consumer toward making a buying decision in your favor.

If you think that dark websites and colored text on colored backgrounds looks better, you may be right. However, as I mentioned earlier loud colors and excessive graphics only serve to distract attention from the sales message contained in your site content and makes your site harder to read. Remember: keep it simple and you’ll keep the sale.

Also, remember that web users tend to scan text instead of reading it start to finish like printed text. Since the majority of your visitors will not read all your content, use headlines, subheadings, and bolded text that quickly convey your overall message. Done correctly, a visitor should be able to scan all your headlines, subheads, and bold text in just a few seconds and understand the central message of your site or page.

Make Your Website Easy to Navigate

Since the chief purpose of your site is to convey information, you should design your website so the information it contains is easy to find. If you make it easy for your visitors to navigate your site, they’ll thank you with their dollars. Make it difficult, and they’ll leave your website before you can say “Google.”

At the bare minimum, you should have a navigation bar on every webpage that includes a link back to your home page and to every top-tier page in your website. In addition, you should consider placing links back to the previous page visited at the top and bottom of the current page. Some websites use “bread crumbs” for this purpose – a “trail” of links that show each page visited since landing at the site.

Lastly, make sure that there are no broken links on your website. Broken links may not seem like a big deal to you, but to a site visitor who was clicking on a link for more information they are a major frustration. Fix your broken links!

Oh, and incidentally, making your site easy to navigate will also help the search engines to find and index all your pages, which might help you get more traffic over the long haul.