WEB SITES
You’ve found your website topic (or niche) and your domain name, now the real fun and creativity begins in designing your website.
There are many ways to go about this depending on your budget and time constraints. There are also several details to consider before embarking on this process.
PURPOSE
In these early stages of your site development, identify what the purpose of your site is. Is it to sell widgets? Is it to make money from affiliate programs? Is it to sell a service? Are you trying to build a member base website? Know what your objectives are (what the site’s about and what you want it to do), so that when you begin to consult with a designer, they will have a concise idea of exactly what you are trying to achieve.
RESEARCH
We can’t emphasize this enough! Seek out your competition-who’s already ranking at the top of where you want to be? Use the right keywords that you believe will drive traffic to your site and see who’s “on top” of the search engines. They are there for a reason and they earned that position. Take note of their design appeal, the quality of their content and how easy it is to navigate through their site.
Make notes of what you like and what you don’t. Your web designer will greatly appreciate your preparation and this will make it easier for you to begin the selection process of what you want.
DESIGN
Think about what kind of web sites you like to visit? Do you like something catchy and easy to find your way around? Exactly, so keep it simple! If visitors can easily find what they came for and it’s of quality, then they will stay longer. The longer they’re there, the better the chance for conversion. Choose color combinations and fonts that compliment the images you plan to use. Using images, bold headers, and directives to guide them will increase your success. Something that is always under estimated is white space. Don’t try to squeeze everything into your web pages, make the layout clean, giving everything its own space so it can be easily read.
EASE OF NAVIGATION
The site should be pleasing to the eye and not overloaded with information. Visitors want to look at a site that is fast and well thought out. They are looking for specific information and don’t want to work to find it. When creating your layout, you’ll want to make sure the site is functional and balanced. If you have several topics or products, you can use color combinations to group like items and then give directives of the actions you want them to take, whether it’s to purchase or sign up for something.Often using the colors red and yellow grab the viewer’s attention, if it compliments your site theme.
Easy navigation should be your priority next to aesthetic appeal when considering your web design.
QUALITY CONTENT
Quality content is important for two reasons!
The first and most obvious is to attract and retain your visitors. Your customers have found your page, because they are looking for something specific and your job is to make it simple and comprehensible. Many sites think that the more information you have the better appeal it has, and this isn’t necessarily so. It’s exactly the opposite; information overload will drive away your traffic.
When developing your content, be clear and concise. Give bullet points and break up your information to make it easier to digest. If you feel your writing skills lack, it’s worth the extra few dollars to hire a writer! Professional writing will be worth every penny to the quality of your site.
The second reason for quality content is that higher rankings go to quality content websites,which earn more links. Remember your primary objective is traffic and the following are items to consider when creating your content:
What are the most common questions your visitors have?
Organize your information into categories.
Optimize your content for search engine rankings, including keywords/keyword phrases and meta tags.
Before you begin your quest for a web design template or designer, we have listed a few sources to consider, based on service and price.
SITE BUILD IT
Words cannot describe this amazing product! They have a quick video intro by the creator…well worth two and a half minutes of your time.
Click Here To Visit Site Build It
TEMPLATE MONSTER
Template Monster features website templates, flash templates and other customizable products that are available for immediate download.
GURU.COM
A treasure of a find! Freelancers from all around the world bid on your project, from web design to writers, anything you need to get your site up and running you can find here.
