Volume # 72
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March 2, 2005
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The BannerView.com newsletter
is a biweekly publication providing tips and advice for conducting E-Business (Business
on the Internet). BannerView.com, a Cenicola-Helvin Enterprises brand, is a variety
of e-business solutions ranging from Web site development to email marketing software,
e-commerce systems, custom online database solutions to Web site hosting & maintenance.
In each biweekly newsletter, you can depend on helpful tips and advice for conducting
business online. As always, archived versions of previous newsletters can be found
by visiting the newsletter archive.
10 ELEMENTS OF A GREAT WEB SITE
These 10 elements
are the trademark of a great Web site:
1. WELL ORGANIZED HOME PAGE
You have probably seen Web sites with so much information jammed
packed on the home page that it makes it impossible to know where
to start. Having a well organized home page means making it easy
for visitors to find information and having a clear plan on where
you want your visitor to go. Unnecessary icons and buttons are distractions.
Keep it simple for your visitors and they will not only stick around,
but they will come back.
2. MINIMAL ANIMATION
Excessive animation may have been cool 5 years ago, but it is now
considered annoying. Animation is okay in moderation, however, as
long as the maximum loop is 5 times or less. You can effectively
use animation to draw attention without distracting the visitor from
the purpose of your Web site.
3. READABLE BACKGROUNDS
Have you ever visited a Web site that looks good until the background
image loads and now you cannot read the text? The beach, the sky,
your cat may all be very important to you, just do not use them as
your background. Solid backgrounds without patterns that offset the
color of the text work best.
4. CONSISTENT TEXT
You may use different fonts besides Arial, Verdana, and Times New
Roman, but do not go overboard. Stick to one font for your text.
Fonts like Arial or Verdana are easy to read. Remember that if you
use an uncommon font for your text, your visitor must have that font
loaded on their system in order to view it properly. You can create
graphics with uncommon fonts, but graphics can slow the load time
of your Web page and are not indexed by search engines without added
HTML code which can hurt your search engine rankings.
5. NO UNDER CONSTRUCTION SIGNS
As detailed in our last newsletter, A Web Site is a Constant Work
in Progress
- no site is a finished product. Most are continually being updated
with new information. In a sense, every Web site is always "under
construction." However, that message should never appear on
your home page because you're essentially telling visitors that your
site is not ready for them to view. Search engines like Yahoo! will
automatically reject your site if you have ANY page that states it
is under construction.
6. DON'T SPECIFY WHICH WEB BROWSER TO USE
Few statements on a Web page annoy visitors as much as "This
Site Best Viewed With..." How many times have you ever upgraded
or downloaded a new Web browser just to look at a single Web site?
Probably never. Unless you are absolutely certain that visitors will
use a particular Web browser (on a company Intranet, for example),
your site should be optimized to display effectively across major
browsers.
7. NO BACKGROUND MUSIC
Background music on a page adds no content but increases the annoyance
factor and the page download time. It is ok to include music clips
on your site, but give your visitors the option to listen instead
of assaulting them with your choice of music. Since most people surf
the Internet at work or have music already playing on their computer,
adding to that really detracts from their experience.
8. CONSTRUCTION AROUND MOST POPULAR SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
A lot of Web designers will design their site around a certain resolution
- their own computer's! The problem is that not everyone will have
a 21" monitor and a resolution of 1024x768. This makes it so
visitors have to scroll if they aren't using a high resolution. Using
expandable tables that contract and retract with different resolutions
and designing to the most popular resolution of 800x600 is a good
way to ensure that your site is viewed correctly by the majority
of its visitors.
9. USE WEB COLOR COMBINATIONS
The Web Palette consists of 216 colors that both Macintosh and Windows
systems display accurately. A lot of graphics are "too large" meaning
they have "unused" colors in them which cause the graphics
to be larger (in file size) than they need to be. By taking out these
unused colors, it will make your graphics load faster, sometimes
by as much as 30%.
10. OVERALL CONSISTENCY
The layout and design of your site from page to page should remain
consistent. Keep the color scheme, sight lines, navigation buttons
and text links in the same places from page to page. This will give
the visitor a better experience as they will come to expect certain
aspects of the site appearing in the same places and anticipate their
navigation throughout the site.
To learn more about the BannerView.com E-Business Solutions available
for your business call us within Las Vegas at 702-312-9444 or outside
of Las Vegas Toll Free at (888) 221-8640. More contact methods are
available on our contact
page.
Stay tuned to the
BannerView.com newsletter, sent every other week on Wednesday, for helpful tips, thoughtful advice and answers to questions you may be asking about how to conduct business online.
Have a question about E-Business?
Send us your questions and read the answers in upcoming newsletters!
Sincerely,
BannerView.com E-Business Solutions
A Cenicola-Helvin Enterprises Brand
info@BannerView.com
http://www.BannerView.com
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