You may have read the article entitled Webdesign don'ts, the article as the name suggests covers some of the things you should avoid when designing a website, things that will likely cause visitors to never want to visit your site again.
This article concentrates on the things you should do when designing a website to add to the experience of the visitor and make your site easier for him or her to use. This is important because each visitor to your site is a potential customer and the more they enjoy their visit to your site the more likely they are to buy from it. As with the don'ts of webdesign I have put these do's of webdesign in a point by point format so they can be easily read.
Do tell your visitors what your site is about on the main page. This saves them time if they're not interested in what your site offers and gives you the chance to use some keywords when describing your site.
Do optimize every page for the search engines by including keyword rich titles, keyword rich meta tags, a keyword rich introduction to each page and by using heading tags around your most important keywords wherever possible.
Do have a constant style and navigation system on your website. If your style and navigation is not constant then visitors will find it difficult to know if they're still on your website and may just leave.
Do have an email address or at least a "Contact us" link on every page. Make it easy for people to contact you, if they've to search for an email address they'll become frustrated and probably leave altogether.
Do link home on every page. Not all users will enter your site via the home page, many will come through other pages via the search engines and when they get there they will be stuck unless you direct them back to the home page.
Do make navigation as easy a possible, every page should be accessible via two links from the home page and no more than three from any other page. This enables people to find what they want quickly.
Do use alt text to provide people with images turned off an idea of what your images are, also some search engines index keywords inside the alt tag so including alt text may actually help your rankings.
Do define height and width in all tables and graphics as this aids download time. Nobody wants to wait an eternity for a page to load so this is a must.
Do use space to break up long pages of text as long paragraphs look unprofessional and are hard to read. If something's hard to read people just won't bother reading it.
Using all or most of the above when designing your website will surely enhance a persons visit making them more inclined to buy from you.
