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Top 10 Tips for a Great Website

We’ve put together this list of points to consider when creating a website for your business or organization based on what we find many businesses and individuals make the mistake of doing.

1. Mobile Device Optimization.

There are too many users viewing websites on mobile devices for this to be ignored. Even on mobile devices that allow flash content to be viewed, it can be taxing on the still limited resources of those devices and may not function propery on every device. There’s a reason Adobe has ceased flash mobile player development. http://zd.net/vh63EP [ZD Net] Other things to consider: the way users navigate a site by touch rather than a mouse click on a mobile device, making sure the layout looks good, or reducing loading times. Besides, not many people have unlimted data plans for their devices. Also, arriving at a site that just doesn’t work can be frustrating to visitors. If your goal is to reach more people through your website then be sure everyone on any mobile device is at least able to view its content hassle free.

2. Be Transparent.

Be clear and direct about who you are and what you do. New visitors to your website can benefit greatly by immediately knowing this information and it will contribute to them remaining on your site for a longer period of time. You don’t want to leave prospective customers confused about what kind of company or business you are. For example, “MPC Studios is a website design company providing marketing and promotional services.” offers clearer information than “MPC is dedicated to providing quality services with integrity to its customers.” Being transparent and open about your business will help add value and trustworthiness in your customer’s eyes.

3. Easily Accessible Contact Info.

Keeping your visitors engaged is imperative if you want a way of making them come back for more of what you have to offer, such as products or services. You want to take “visitors” and convert them into your “customers” or “fans” by creating a communication bridge with them. Having contact info easily available can help people get in touch about purchasing products or services or figuring out where you are located. This in turn will generate sales and/or feedback.

4. Use Relevant, Professional Looking Photography.

Visual appeal is important in keeping a site visitor interested and on your site. Stay away from using poor quality images just because you already have them lying around. If you want a photo of yourself or of staff don’t use a random image cropped from a group shot for example. That may work fine on facebook, but not on your website. What people see on there is a reflection of your business or organization. Opting to have professional looking images will make a huge difference in the site’s overall quality as well. If you are already consulting a professional let them advise you on what to use.

5. Be Concise Both Visually & Verbally

Make sure your content is readable, by avoiding walls of text. It helps to omit any irrelevant content and then breaking down text into paragraphs with subtitles. Visually, differences in text size or added images break up the page so it’s not a strain to read..

6. Repeat When Necessary

The most important information should be listed frequently on the website, for example the navigation should also be included in the footer. The contact info/page/form should be accessible from every page. It’s not redundancy it’s reinforcing availability of important elements.

7. Give Them the Information They Are Looking For

Don’t be afraid to list prices for products and services. This is a large part of the reason potential customers or clients will visit your website in the first place.

8. Don’t Ignore Typography

Avoid tiny fonts. Don’t use font color and backgrounds that lack contrast, and don’t cram together your content. White space is always a good thing.

9. Follow Convention

At least where it counts. Everyone wants to be different, but the average visitor expects navigation to be located in one of a few places, they expect the logo to link back to the homepage, they expect links within the text to be underlined, etc. Being edgy or different is great but not at the expense of a usable website.

10. Don’t Add Background Music or Sounds

At least don’t have it start playing when the site loads – especially with no easy to find mute button. Just because it can be done it does not mean you should. Sound effects are unnecessary as well. It is likely site visitor’s are already playing their own music already. There’s nothing more annoying than when music starts playing from out of nowhere and it takes forever just to figure out which of you hundred browser tabs it’s coming from. A website done right can make a loud impact without all the noise.