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ADD GRAPHICS TO YOUR WEBSITE - without losing your mind!
We've heard it over and over again - adding graphics to a website is a GOOD thing. They can generally make your site more appealing, illustrate points or products, and provide creative icons for people to click through for more information. So you...
How to Design a PopUp Window to Boost Opt-Ins
I get many emails a month from people asking how to go about designing a popup window to extract the maximum number of opt-ins from visitors to their web site. In this article I outline the seven essential steps you should take in your design of a...
Ten Secrets for Building a Winning Web Site
A professional-looking web site goes a long way to establishing you and your product as legitimate and trustworthy. It doesn't have to be fancy (shouldn't be, actually), but a nice, clean design is essential. 1. Keep the design simple. Period! 2....
Using and Converting to Color-Safe Palettes
Using and Converting to Color-Safe Palettes by Sunil Tanna of Answers 2000 http://www.ans2000.com/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Publication Terms And Conditions: Answers 2000 Limited grants you a free...
WHY DESIGN IS AS IMPORTANT AS PROMOTION
We have all heard that there's no use having the best site in the world if you don't promote it, and submit it to the search engines. Well the opposite is also true. There is no point in promoting your site unless it is well designed and going to...
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35 Deadly Website Sins That will Kill Your Business!
After reviewing thousands of web sites over the years, I have come to the conclusion that many business web sites are missing the boat.
For example, I've been working on some offline promotions and was searching for a simple targeted mailing list. I searched through about twenty sites and not one of those sites were, what I would consider, professional. Their standard blue links were enlarged to about a size 16 font, busy backgrounds, flashing images and very unorganized.
Did I purchase a mailing list from any of those sites? Absolutely not. Why? The way I see it, if those companies don't take pride in their web sites, chances are, they won't take pride in their products either. Large linked text and flashing graphics won't make sales.
Your web site is a direct reflection of you and your business. The appearance of your site is the most important factor in determining your sites value. In other words, if your site doesn't look professional or pleasing to the eyes at first glance, its perceived value and the value of your products and services will be low.
On the other hand, you may have a great web site, well designed and a quality product or service, but if it takes too long to load, the value will still be perceived as low. Why? Because your potential customer won't wait. Ultimately costing you business.
Another consideration of great importance is your content. Not just links, but content with value. When someone is surfing the net and they visit your web site, they're visiting for a reason. Your site has something they want. Whether it is your product, service or information, that's why they're there. If they don't find what they're looking for, they'll move on to the next site and so on.
If you want your visitors to stay at your site, provide the quality content they're looking for in a nicely organized fashion. Give them a reason to want to explore your site and to continue to visit your site in the future.
After receiving many questions in regard to web site design, I have devised a list of, what I refer to as, "35 Deadly Web Site Sins."
- Poor load time
- Poor overall
appearance
- Spelling/Grammar
- No contact information
- Poor content
- Poor navigation
- Broken links and graphics
- Poor browser compatibility
- Large slow loading graphics
- Too many graphics
- Pages scrolling to oblivion
- Multiple use of animated graphics
- Animated bullets
- Too many graphic and/or line dividers
- Busy, distracting backgrounds
- Multiple banners and buttons
- Poor use of frames
- Large fonts
- Pop up messages
- Over use of java
- Poor use of tables
- Poor organization
- Different backgrounds on each page
- Over powering music set to autoplay
- Confusing
- Too much advertising
- Large Welcome banners
- Multiple colored text
- Text difficult to read
- No Meta tags
- Multiple use of different fonts
- Under construction signs
- Scrolling text in the status bar
- Large scrolling text across the page
- Poor use of mouse over effects
Take some time to really look at your site. Compare it to sites that you feel look professional. Time your site's load time -- your customers won't wait. Their time is valuable.
The simple, well designed sites make the sales. If your sales aren't what you had hoped, take some time to seriously evaluate your site and make some changes before spending your time and money on advertising and marketing. You may be pleasantly surprised.
About the author:
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design
course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com
And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a
REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.comVisit Web-Source.net
to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and
receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet
Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net
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