Friday, February 23, 2007

Attracting Your Traffic: Website Design With a Professional Feel

A website is the medium by which viewers will access information or buy products over the internet, and just like a catalog, newspaper, magazine, etc. it is imperative that the information be presented in an organized, easy to access, and professional looking manner. Obviously not all types of informational websites need to be professional looking but most types of informational websites will benefit from a professional design, and it is a necessity that any type of e-commerce site selling a product be professionally laid out and be as well designed as possible.

Not everyone can afford professional website designers to build their site, however if you are selling a product it is advisable to pay the extra money for a website designer; however, if you are well versed in website design you could take on this challenge yourself. For informational websites, the prospect of doing the work yourself can save you money and still result in a good looking website. This article will help point out some key areas you should focus on when designing your own website.

Software:

Unless you are an HTML guru, you are going to need some website design software. There are many different software titles out there ranging from free to hundreds of dollars. I recommend Macromedia Dreamweaver: it is easy to use, has a ton of features and allows you to have complete control over your website with very minimal HTML knowledge. However Dreamweaver is expensive and may not be within your budget. If you have Microsoft office you can use Microsoft FrontPage to build your website. FrontPage is not as easy to use as Dreamweaver in my opinion but is still very capable of producing an excellent website for your company. There are also a lot of free Programs out there that you can use but be warned, in most cases they will not be as easy to use and may require more knowledge of HTML code to be effective.

Templates:

If you’re not a designer and are having trouble coming up with an attractive and organized website design, templates are an excellent way to build up a professional looking website in a very short time. There are thousands of free templates, simply go to a search engine and search for website templates. Free templates are a toss up however in terms of quality. Sometimes you can find good free templates, and other times you will spend hours looking and not find one decent template. For times like these I suggest you turn to buying a template. Premium templates typically cost up to $80 or so and are very well designed. They look just as good as any major website you’ve ever visited and can include flash animations if you so desire. A template is a very wise investment and is well worth the money. Keep in mind, however, that you will still need some kind of site building software and you may need image editing software (windows paint isn’t going to cut it). Photoshop is typically recommended, but with its large price tag, you can opt for more affordable solutions. Also, some hosting services will provide you with professional template for free just by using their services. Hostmonster.com and
Web.com hosting services offer this extra bonus.
After you get your software and/or templates, you can finally sit down and formulate your plan of attack. Don’t underestimate good planning as it is much easier to have all your angles figured out ahead of time than to keep redoing your site mid-stride. Don’t even touch the computer yet, take out a pencil and paper and jot down your design on paper. This pre-design should be mostly for layout and navigation, obviously you don’t need to draw each image. Write down how you want the layout of your site to be, where you want navigation, content, advertisements, products, links, etc. Be detailed in how you want your navigation to be designed. Do you want very general category navigation and then have that expand when you click on it, or do you want more specific links visible right up front on the main page. Doing this now will save you time later. Now you will need to focus on three basic aspects of website design.

Overall Appearance:

If you purchased a template then you are all ready to go here, just decide on text and link colors and your set. But if you’re starting from scratch you should begin to decide how you want your site to look. The background color should be very light. White is preferable, but you don’t have to have a white background, you can use a very light gray or blue, but the key here is to keep it very pale, very light. By making the background light, you have a bit more freedom in which colors to choose for the rest of your site. This is really up to what the sites topic deals with or what types of products you are selling; however, it is advisable not to use a large amount of varying colors. The colors you choose should go well together. Try a couple sample pages with very simple layouts with tables or layers and just change their background colors and text colors to see what looks good. Don’t be afraid to ask for others opinions also, just because you like the website doesn’t mean anyone else does. Think of it as painting the interior of your house. You may like lime green and purple on every wall, but if nobody else likes those colors, it will be a lot harder to sell your home. So make your site as easy to sell as possible. Text colors should contrast well with their backgrounds. If the text has a dark background it should be light colored and vice versa.

Layout:

Layout is extremely important in designing your website. A confusing layout, a misaligned layout or a disproportioned layout can have a detrimental effect on the design of your website. If a visitor is confused by the layout or misdirected, then that visitor may simply go somewhere else. People are very finicky and it takes only a few seconds for a visitor to form an initial impression about your site.

If you are selling a product or providing information, that is the first place a visitor should look when visiting your website. Put your main content towards the center of the page near the top. That content is typically why the visitor came to your website in the first place, so that content should be the first thing you provide them and the first thing they see. If a visitor doesn’t find what they came for right from the beginning, there’s a good chance they will simply hit the back button and find somewhere else to get their product or information.

The proportional aspect of your layout is also very important. Modern websites are typically designed with two or three column designs. One column is used for the sites content, while the other column(s) are typically used for navigation, updates, advertisements, etc. When deciding on the size of certain section, the content portion should be at least 50% of the total width, more if possible. The actual size of the columns is a judgment call, but typically the sizes should correspond to the content they contain.

In addition to column widths, the height of the header is also very important. The header typically will contain your logo, some advertisements or product promotions, and typically some navigational components. The header, much like the columns, should not be overwhelming and the content portion of your page should be visible without even having to scroll down the page.

By implementing these simple guidelines, your website will have the proper, user friendly layout.

Navigation:

Navigation is one of the most important aspects of designing your website. Without a clear navigational layout, your visitors will feel lost in a maze and find another site to visit. You want your site’s visitors to be able to find the information they need fast and efficiently, and failure to do so will cost you in traffic and ultimately sales.

There are many different ways to layout a navigation system for your website. The best way is to have your sites main categories in one area, and your sites contact info, policies, about page etc in another. This separates your “sales” navigation from your “information” navigation and keeps things a bit more organized. Its best to place navigation where the viewers expect to see it, there’s no need to get creative with placement here. Larger navigation areas are best suited for columns on the left side of the page. You can place navigation on the right side, but most visitors will expect to see those main shopping or information categories nesting on the left. The navigation column should be wide enough to fit each category on a single line of text. If a category has a long title and wraps around to a second line, that’s OK but its better to fit them on one line.

Every category you want visitors to see should be visible on ALL pages. Ideally visitors should not have to hit the back button to find the links they want. Expanding menus are an excellent way to display subcategories for the corresponding main category. They will save you space because only the subcategories under the main category that was chosen will show at a time. Its advisable not to use java script menus for e-commerce sites unless you know how to create them correctly; in addition, not every visitor’s browser will display java correctly, so stick with HTML.

Your company/policy information categories should be placed at the top and bottom of your page in the header and the footer and if you have a shopping cart make sure to have a link to it at the top of the page so customers can checkout easily. You should also have a shopping cart on the side navigation, this way the customer can find their shopping cart at any time. If your customer needs to go on a scavenger hunt to buy your product or read your information, they won’t.

Conclusion:

If you follow these basic guidelines and tips, you will be well on your way to website design success. As stated earlier, don’t be afraid to spend a little money up front on software or templates, they will save you time, produce a much better website, and will end up paying for themselves in the end.