Create
Your Website's Look & Feel
Your website's
look and feel are very important. Most successful
web pages, especially in commercial sites, are
developed using just a few basic styles. As people
and companies build more site and pages, they find
what works and what doesn't. As the world
wide web continues to develop, surfers expect to
see certain things in certain places.
For instance,
the navigation bar should either be on the left
running vertically down the page, or on the top
just under the banner and logo. There should be
a footer at the bottom with copyright information,
and sometimes, terms and conditions, and privacy
links.
When your
visitor sees things he's used to, and has seen
before, he will find it easier to navigate your
site. He will also be much more comfortable. Rather
than spend his time trying to figure out your splashy
design, he will be reading your content, which
is what you wanted him to do in the first place.
For search
engine access, you will need to have text links
to the inside of your site. If your nav bar uses
images to point to your interior links, you can
put a small navigation bar just above the footer
with text links to the same pages. that way the
search engine bots can travel those text links
to your interior pages.
Your background
should be white, or at least a color or image that
doesn't interfere with your readers, and does not
give them eyestrain. Put graphics and flash presentations
on your page in a way that adds to the content,
and doesn't detract. Keep in mind that the content
is what's most important, and that includes both
your readers and the search engines. Make sure
you have enough whitespace to separate sections.
Look at
other sites that you find attractive and informative.
See what they do to make their site attractive
and flow well. Get ideas, but don't copy them.
If you duplicate other peoples work, not only do
you run afoul of the copyright laws, but you also
will incur a penalty in the search engines, and
never get a decent listing in them.
You can
get some nice templates and graphics at www.boxedart.com.
They have a large selection and only cost around
$59.00 per year to join. If you own Microsoft Office,
you have access to Microsoft's clip art. this is
a huge library of various graphics that you can
add to other images, and really make your site
look professional.
For those
of you who find this just too daunting, you can
hire a graphics artist. I understand you can get
one from India for just a few bucks an hour. Check
out www.rentacoder.com,
and forums.digitalpoint.com.
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