Much like the headquarters of an offline company, your website acts as the headquarters and hub for your online business. Not only visitors, but all transactions and everything related to your online business goes through your website. In order to get the most from your site, it is important to follow the best practices for website design.
Make sure you have clear and simple navigation on your website. Navigation menus should be uncluttered, easy to maneuver and understand, and should be free of excess text or Flash.
It is best to limit the use of images on your website. Superflous images on your website may cause your site to load slowly and become an annoyance for visitors. Visitors on slower modems will be especially frustrated if you are using large images that take up a lot of bandwidth. In website design, it is a best practice to reduce anything that detracts from the content of your site, and too many images on your website can be a distraction.
Keep each paragraph of text at a reasonable length. Paragraphs with too much text are difficult to read, and your visitors may feel as though they are not progressing through your website. The best practice is to keep short, well formed paragraphs that are to the point and devoid of excess information.
Your website should also comply to the web standards at
www.w3.org, and should always be cross-browser compatible. During your website design, make sure to test your website on as many different browsers as you have available. Some web browsers read code differently, and this can cause an unnecessary inconvenience for the visitor. Just because your site looks great on Internet Explorer does not mean it will look as good on Firefox or Opera.
Avoid using any scripting languages unless there is a specific reason to do so. Scripting languages can cause several problems, including problems loading on some computers. Heavy scripting is not always supported across browsers. Scripting can also create a more hectic experience, since visual effects can be both distracting and a burden on loading time. It is a best practice for website design to stay away from any programming that may cause any problems to your visitors.
Finally, it is a good idea to use a CSS to style your page. This saves you time and effort because it will style your entire site at once, rather than you having to type in the coding for each paragraph. It also ensures that the website is kept simple, clean, and consistent, which creates a better user experience.
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- Resource Box - This article may be distributed freely on your website, as long as this entire article, including working links and this resource box, are unchanged. To find out how you can bring the pieces of your online business together, go to:
http://www.elitewebsolutions.com . Copyright 2009 Larry Lang. All Rights Reserved. Lang Enterprises Inc.
