So now that I've written a couple posts on SEO I wanted to talk about something that is just as important. Web Site Design! So you have the basic SEO tips and tricks down right? Of Course, but that's only half the battle. If your website is poorly setup, hard to navigate, or just full of ads nobody is going to want to stay on your website and more importantly come back! Think of it this way, you would never want to watch television if it was all commercials, same in that you would never read a magazine if it was all ads. If you're using your website as an informative website I would suggest a 75/25 content to ad ratio that way your visitor doesn't get overwhelmed and feel like they are simply trying to be sold. Yet, you are really trying to provide them with helpful information.
When designing your website you have to think like a customer. You don't want your website to feel like a used car lot! For example you walk in and 10 scummy (not saying all used car salesman are scums just trying to get a point across) people run up to you and tell you all these wonderful things about not so great products. It makes you just want to leave. The same goes with a website just filled with ads all over. So here are some basic tips to keep visitors engaged on your website and most importantly keep them coming back over and over!
Don't use image backgrounds.
Websites that use images as backgrounds have an amateur feel, because it's mostly amateur sites that use them. How many mainstream websites have a background image? Not Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, the New York Times, or any real big players. Background images can also slow load times, often times aggravating the customer making them leave and never come back! Another problem with using an image as a background is your links. You will often run into the issue of your links blending into the image and people won’t be able to find them.
This does not mean you should never use a background image. If you chose to just be careful about the size and quality of your image, and make sure links and text are clearly visible. One way to make this easier is to lower the brightness or the opacity of the image so your content stands out much more. AND THAT’S WHAT YOUR CONTENT SHOULD DO!
Make your site easy to navigate!
Occasionaly a user will get lost on a website and want to start over. Have a navigation bar on the top and bottom of every page, especially a link to your home page. Also make sure your navigation links are descriptive, not only for SEO reasons but that way in case they do get lost they can either get to your home page or back to the original topic page. Nothing is worse than getting on a website and having to click the back button 10 times to get back to the start or something else you were interested in reading. Another thing to consider is people come from search engines and might be put into the middle of your website. So clicking the back button would take them back to there search results instead of your home page. Then most likely you would have lost a potential customer!
Be Easy On The Eyes!
Nothing is worse than going to a website and having to squint your eyes or change the brightness on your srceen to be able to read it. Do not put dark text on dark text like red on blue for example.Also, it's hard to read text on background images that have a wide mixture of light and dark; any background images should be simple and mostly dark or mostly light. You can improve readability of text on a background image by increasing the text size and/or making it bold.
These are just a couple tips on web design continue to come back or more tips and tricks!
Thanks!
Jordan
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