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Hey are you thinking what I am thinking… Got it What! He he he

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1. Do not use framesets in your web sites: They are not required in most cases and framesets will kill you with search engines.

2. Do not use a ‘heavy’ background in your web pages that distracts the users from what you are trying to present to them and makes the text hard to read. Remember what you are trying to do with your website, and I think for most, it is not trying to impress people with some tacky background tile. Keep it easy to read; there is a reason why solid colored text on a solid colored backgrounds are used often on web pages and in print.

3. Use sharp clear pictures: This is really important, a good looking web page can be made with just one clear sharp image and at the same time, the best looking web page can be made to look bad with just one crappy image.

4. Get sharp clear copy of your logo: If you are a company, you want to look professional so that people have confidence in giving you their money, a crappy looking logo isn’t going to do it.

5. Avoid the IE page transitions: IE (Internet Explorer) can create many special effects, things like page transitions (page wipes, etc. …) are tempting and may be suitable sometimes, but for 99% of web sites they are not.

6. Avoid the flying text: Again, the decision whether or not to do this has much to do with the content of your web pages, but it should be clear that for most websites this would not be a good thing.

7. If you are trying to sell something, having live credit card processing will increase your sales substantially. Sometimes when people want to start selling online they avoid the perceived trouble of hooking up with a credit card processing service because of the programming required. This is a big mistake, studies have clearly shown that web pages that provide credit card processing in their e-commerce enabled web pages (web pages that sell stuff) have much greater conversions.

Above all, make the web site pages no more than 60-70k (I shoot for 50k) if you can, and keep things very simple so your clients have an easy time finding things. You can help this along by strategically making use of the browsers caching capabilities.

In a nutshell: your web-browser will reuse images that it has loaded. So (if for example) if you have an image on your 1st page that you also use on 2 other pages in your website, this image only gets downloaded once by the browser and subsequent times the browser will automatically load a copy of the image it has from its own cache. This can really speed up things from the surfer’s point of view and also saves you bandwidth.

You can create a website that attracts customers, not repels them, with a little common sense advice.

Everyone wants an attractive professional looking website. But too often businesses think they need a GLITZY site with all the bells and whistles when what they really need is a functional site that attracts customers.

Creating a user-friendly website doesn’t require a lot of money or a staff of professional, high priced, designers. If fact, they can be the very thing that leads you to go overboard.

All you really need to know is what your customer wants and how to deliver it in a way that even a first-time visitor can understand.

How do you know what your customers want? Listen! Keep track of the questions they ask when they visit or call. Then make sure those questions are answered right on the site.

Since the web uses hypertext, it connects to information in many different ways. Unlike a library, where a book just sits on a shelf, a website should allow pages to be accessed the way users think about information.

You will have a better site when it is designed to support flexible human behavior and not just one path for people to follow.

Visitors will not stick around for slow overloaded sites, that might have looked good but just aren’t worth the wait. Remember that for the next few years, most users will access the Internet through slow modems. So web page design that addresses the needs of the masses, has a better chance to be seen and appreciated.

Your pages must download quickly, or users may not only, not follow the links, but may also have trouble navigating the site. People are more likely to get lost on slow sites than fast ones and more likely to leave and not return.

Even on the Internet, it’s true that buyers want to see what they are buying; but over loading a page with slow loading images of products can be a big mistake. You would be better off with small (thumbnail) images and follow with larger images on succeeding pages.

Text downloads faster than graphics; but it is important to minimize the words on a page as well. Research on how people read online shows “They don’t”. They tend to scan. Users prefer concise text that’s easy to scan, with a liberal use of highlighted words, bulleted lists and sub-headings.

Users would rather have the “facts” than the “fluff”! The average user will probably only spend a few seconds on your home page deciding whether it’s worth their time to go further or go on to the other 10 million sites on the Web.

If you make users wait to long, they leave. If you confuse them, they leave. If your site is too wordy, they leave. However, if your site is easy to use and is full of useful content, they stay.

Remember, anybody can put up a website. But companies that put up a user-friendly site get the business.

We’ve all read the countless publications about effective web site design, outstanding written content and the never ending need for search engine optimization. But often the importance of color for a web site is overlooked. Yet it is a proven fact that physical changes take place when individuals are exposed to certain colors. Because colors have the power to stimulate, excite, or even depress, specific color combinations can possibly work to your advantage or to your detriment.

Is Your Web Site Color Sending the Right Message?

While we all have our own color preferences, when it comes to a web site, you may have to abandon your favorite color and consider what draws a person’s eye, what feels inviting and mostly what says, “I’m someone you want to deal with.” In fact, to one person the color yellow represents brightness while to another the yellow color seems repugnant. But no matter how you look at it, colors make the difference. Whether you are selling a product, offering a service or promoting a new business, your web site is your primary advertisement on the Internet. Therefore your job is to make everything about your site as inviting as you make your home. After all, this is how you represent yourself to millions of viewers. And just as you want people to feel at home and at ease when visiting your house, you want visitors to feel the same level of receptivity when visiting your online business.

How Can You Be Sure Of The Right Color For Your Website?

1. Have you ever noticed that on some days you feel more vibrant and alive simply by the color of clothing you’re wearing? The color actually influences your mood. The same holds true of your web site. Based on the colors selected, it either comes across as vibrant, relaxing or depressing.

2. Visually, some colors elicit feelings of excitement, serenity, joyfulness, and even distress. Pay attention to what feelings are evoked when seeing a particular color, and then apply the same principle to your web site.

3. Do you think that people buy more often when they see a certain color? The truth of the matter is that when used correctly, you can encourage more buying and selling power when using the right colors. Colors emphatically stimulate a response, sometimes positive and sometimes negative.

4. You may think that when you look at an ad that you’re attracted to the words or the style, but in fact, more than likely you’re attracted to the color. If you like the color, you’ll be drawn to buy whatever the ad is promoting. If the color doesn’t appeal you may very well be turned off by the product.

5. White is always safe and easy on the eye as a background color for your site plus it lends itself to a feeling of trust. Although black does appear at first to create drama, it is not a good background color for your web site.

6. While any color blends well with white, all colors are not as appealing to the emotional eye. Red activates excitement while greens and blues leave a feeling of peace and calm. Dark colors evoke dense, heavy feelings. Yellow offers a feeling of brightness. Since all colors have different meanings and elicit different feelings it’s important to choose a color that reflects your intended message.

7. When making a color choice for your web site, remember that colors on the red side are warm and stimulating, while blue/green colors are cool and relaxing. Review your site objectively and ask yourself if your site is sending the right message.

8. Darker colors may appear a bit somber but when mixed with some bright colors they can add a more cheerful tone and be very inviting. As an example, I recently reviewed a site that contained a lot of gray, but there were hues of rust and yellow intermittently dispersed which made it very attractive.

Colors and What They Suggest:

BLUE - suggests security, authority, faithfulness and dignity

BROWN - suggests affluence, effectiveness.

GRAY - suggests authority, practicality and creativity

GREEN - suggests health, freedom and tranquility - easiest color on the eye.

ORANGE - suggests pleasure, excitement and ambition

PINK - suggests femininity, well being and innocence.

PURPLE - suggests spirituality, wealth, and sophistication

RED - suggests excitement, strength and aggressiveness

WHITE - suggests purity, devotion, and truthfulness.

YELLOW - suggests warmth, sunshine and happiness - good accent color.