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online courses on How To Start Your Own Dot Com Company - Principles of a
good web site |
Now begins the
acid test. Every entrepreneur sallies forth with a prayer on his lips and a
hope in his heart that his dot com will become a reasonable success, even if
it fails to take the world by storm. The least a startup can do to get noticed
is follow the ten principles listed below:
This rule is number one for a reason. It's the most
important. A simple site is one that is easy to use and navigate. Simple is
good, simpler is even better, like the site shown here, which hardly has any
graphics.
Before starting, determine who your intended audience will
be, what types of information they will want, and what message you want to
convey. Design your pages with this in mind. Keep your message on target by
asking yourself, "Will visitors to my site need and
understand this message?"
Give your visitors the important information they need, and
make it easy for them to get it.
If you have new or important information, put it up front so people see it
first. Remove out of date information.
Put your contact information, email address and some kind of
identifier on every page of your site. If visitors to your site need to reach
you, the contact information will always be right in front of them. Also,
visitors do not always enter a site through the front page, so have your
identification and contact information on every page so visitors will always
know where they are.
Don't just put an existing print brochure up on the Web. Use
some of the features that make the medium unique. Have articles and links to
other pages. Keep your visitors engaged, informed, and, where appropriate,
entertained.
Keep your message and presentation consistent. Use a
consistent layout scheme to
make your site easier to navigate and use. When visitors clicks on a Web page
link, they
cannot always tell if they have left a Web site or have just
gone to a different page in it. Using the same design and layout elements on
every page will make it clear to visitors that they are still on your site.
Make browsing your
site fast, easy and convenient. Most visitors to your site will have
slow modems, so don't
make them wait to see your pages. Keep audio, video and even
graphics to a
minimum, and keep the file sizes as small as possible. Always let your visitors
know where they are
on your site and give them the option to go back to the previous
page or to jump to
other pages.
A good Web site provides useful information. A great one
engages visitors and involves them in the site. A simple way to do this is to
provide a way for them to give feedback. Another way is to let visitors sign up
for a newsletter via email. If you have the ability and the budget, you can add
contests, chats, message boards and discussion forums.
You want to keep your
site simple, easy to use and fast to load, but that does not mean that it has to
be boring or ugly. You should never use audio, video, graphics, colors or fonts
on your site just because you have them. They should have a purpose and should
fit in with the message you are conveying and the audience you are trying to
reach. Balancing aesthetics and functionality is one of the biggest problems to
overcome when designing a site. If you don't have a good sense of style and
design, get help.
All of the information on your site should be current.
Regular updates will give visitors a
reason to come back to your site. Old or out of date
information will drive visitors away and
make them question what the value of your message.
