Site Design....Site Disaster....What Do Your Visitors See?
So you got your own website now. Exciting isn’t it? You´re ready to start putting your website to work for you. What will you do first? So many ideas going through your head...you want to make it the best website on the internet. You want to make it unique and different from anyone else´s.
So many ideas popping in and out of your head you want to do so much. After all besides things in our home, when do we really get to design anything? Before we know it we have added a little of this and a little of that and maybe some more of this. It´s almost like waving a magic wand over everything giving it color and making it pretty. To us, our web site looks great we have color and we have animated graphics we also have a lot of content, after all that is what gets website recognition, isn‘t it?
But wait, take a closer look, is all that content really necessary? We know google likes content but maybe some of us are confused as to which kind of content google is looking for. I admit, I once thought content is content. But I was very wrong, not all content is created equal. If your website is a business related site then your content should be business related as well. Your content should be interesting and helpful. Something you know your visitors would enjoy. Color and graphics is not useful content.
Many websites have articles on their site. This is probably one of the best contents to have on your site. Most articles are interesting and provide useful information. What makes articles on your site even better? If they are your articles. Articles are not hard to write just pick a subject you are familiar with and write an article about it. Just remember to keep your article topics related to the type of site you have.
Let´s talk color, is all that bright color really what our visitors want to see? Some colors are way too bright and can be sensitive to peoples´ eyes. If you need to have color make them more down to earth colors not something that is going to make your visitors want to run from your site. Not having any color is also good . Color is optional, just choose it wisely.
Animated graphics, who is guilty of those? I know I am, and it´s understandable as they are cute and neat to look at. Or are they? Too many things flashing on your site is not appealing. Also, too many graphics will draw the attention away from what is really important - and that is your text. Your text is your message to your visitors. If you insist on having them on your site then I suggest just having maybe one. Make sure your visitor focuses more on your text, not the graphics.
Another point to keep in mind is “keyword rich text”. You want to mention your keywords throughout your website. Every chance you get mention your keywords. Work them into your sentences. When writing articles make sure you add some of your keywords to your article title. This also helps your website get noticed by the SE (search engines).
I write this article because I want everyone to learn from my mistakes. I am guilty of all of the above. It took a new computer to realize how loud my color was (old computer color looked dull) . After realizing how bright it was I panicked. It was like a slap in the face because I thought what an awful color and if I thought that of my own site what were my visitors thinking? I asked the advice of a good friend and thank god this friend is open and honest in her opinions. She helped me to take a step back and really look at my site. My only thoughts were, “What have I been thinking?”
I don’t even remember when or how my site got the point it did. I felt like I had this whole other life I knew nothing about and that person was taking over the designing of my site. But thanks to the new computer and my good friend, I have taken the control back of my site and since I have done so the visitors to my site have actually doubled and the length of the visit has also increased. I am back on the road to success.
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