Webupon

There are so many websites on the internet these days, it’s hard to find the good ones. But the bad ones seem to be everywhere you look. How can you tell if your website is going to attract viewers, making them want to visit your website again and again? Here’s how.

I used to design websites, but decided that the time it took to do a website for people who couldn’t decide on anything wasn’t worth it to me. It was frustrating. They’d expect me to “play”, making up ten or twenty pages for them to reject, just to start all over again. However, I did learn a lot about making nice websites in the meantime. Most of the time I wouldn’t do what I thought the client wanted, and they ended up with rotten website pages (their own choice), but I found out what looked bad in the meantime.

Get rid of distractions

This means to limit the animation (it gets old after the first few iterations), tone down your colors so they don’t hurt the eye, and kill anything that blinks. Also, any time you use a counter on your page, you’re automatically showing you’re an amateur. Do you ever see reputable companies doing that? No. So lose the counter. It’s but another distraction.

Make sure your text is easy to read

You’d be surprised at how many times I’ve seen professionally done websites with text that has the wrong background or using script that’s so fancy, it makes my eyes water. Less is more. Easier is better. And whatever you do, don’t ever overlap text on text. That’s just annoying.

Put your links on the left or at the top

I hate hunting for links. The eye naturally goes from top to bottom and left to right in the English language, so keep the links where all can find them. It’s really annoying to have them at the bottom, so no matter what I’m looking at on the page, I have to scroll the whole way down to find a link to another page. I’m not going to stay on that site for long if I have to do that. Another note on links…keep them consistent between pages and in exactly the same place. It makes for a more professionally done site.

All pictures should face toward the middle

It subconsciously keeps the user focused on what’s important and not the sides of the monitor.

Keep your pages simple

I hate clutter. I think most people do. Your site should be organized so all relevant topics are on one page. I should be able to find whatever I need to instantly when visiting your pages.

Your home page is the most important page

This page will either draw people in or send them running. I’ve personally found that sites with a picture of a smiling person or a seemingly happy animal on the home page seems to be more inviting for some reason.

All the pages on the website need to be related in color or design

If you have mismatched types of pages while clicking on the site, people are going to wonder if they’re even on the same site or not.

External links need to open their own window

That way, you don’t lose the connection to your site, but they can view external information at the same time.

Break up and balance out your pages

Just like an ad in a magazine, the layout of your page is very important. Text should be in paragraphs, divided up by blank lines or pictures for easy reading.

If you update your site often and keep the pages simple and pleasing to the eye, your customer base will reward you.