Reserve, Register Domain Name - Web Hosting Registration

Web Site Design Principles And Best Practices

The key to designing an excellent website, and doing it in the least amount of time, is planning. Internet web site design follows a set of principles which you must incorporate into your plan. Additionally, you?ll want to use a good web building tool to expedite the process.

Planning your web site on paper first is vitally important. I don?t mean planning every little detail, I just mean planning the look and feel of your homepage, as well as the navigation or flow chart of the various pages of your entire web site.

Think of your website as a pyramid with your homepage as the pinnacle of the pyramid. Your visitors will navigate from your homepage to your 2nd tier pages, and from there to the 3rd tier pages. In the beginning, you will just want to build your home page and the 2nd tier pages.

Here?s a Fast Track Technique to make your job of designing and building a website a lot easier:

All you really have to do is plan one page, your homepage, and then clone all your other 2nd and 3rd level pages. Your goal should be to make one perfect webpage, and then you?ll simply use this as your template and fill in the pages with different content.

Let?s look at the requirements of a successful webpage. A good webpage must fill the needs of the visitor to your site, as well as the needs of the search engines, and must also entice the visitor to click-thru to the merchant page where s/he can make a purchase.

But that?s not all. A webpage should also capture the name and email address of the visitor. There should be numerous places and opportunities for the visitor to opt-in to your newsletter or to get your freebie product. I recommend you put your opt-in email capture form on every page of your website. Getting your visitor?s name and email address is actually more important than selling a product to your visitor.

Optimizing your webpages for the search engines is especially important to get free, targeted traffic to your site. Using articles that you write about your business, combined with SEO webpage design principles practically guarantees an avalanche of targeted traffic to your website.

In addition to convincing your visitors to give you their name and email address, and optimizing for the search engines, a top notch webpage should also be designed to nudge the visitor along a pre-defined path to get the visitor to take a particular action. The action you usually desire the visitor to take is to click on the link that leads to your merchant page where a purchase can be made.

Here is where website navigation becomes vitally important. The amount of clicks from the time your visitor arrives at your website to the merchant page where the visitor is confronted with an offer should ideally be not more than three clicks.

The navigation must also be designed so that the visitor is not overwhelmed with choices. I see too many websites that offer a plethora of choices to the customer. This is a Big Mistake. A confused mind hesitates to make a purchase, or takes no action at all and exits the website in search of a simpler solution.

Design your navigation so that no more than five choices are offered at any one time. So your homepage might offer five category links at the top of your page, each of which might lead to five more 2nd tier links. This already adds up to 25 pages plus the homepage.

The navigation should also be placed in the same place on every webpage to make your visitor?s experience easy and pleasurable. You do not want a frustrated customer. The happy mood is the buying mood. What?s more, a good experience at your website ensures that your customer will return again and again to your website.

Offer excellent, easy to find content at your website. Design your webpages with simplicity in mind. Nothing fancy or complicated. Use a white background and easy to read fonts. Do not overdo the colors! Choose black type and one or two colored fonts and that?s it.

You need to convince your visitor that you are reliable, trustworthy, honest, and credible. To do that your webpages should be conservative, easy to navigate, and easy to read. It's also important to include your email address prominently.

By following these webpage design guidelines, everybody wins. The search engines do their job by delivering relevant content to the visitor (because your webpage has been optimized for the search engines). The visitor wins by effortlessly locating the information and product that s/he was seeking. The merchant wins by making a sale. And you win by collecting a commission from the sale. You also acquire the customer?s trust, as well as their name and email address, so that you can market to them again in the future.

Big Willy writes about starting an online business, affiliate marketing, and making money. He has packaged much of what he knows into a re-brandable ebook titled, "Fast Track To Internet Riches!" which you can get for free at his website. http://www.BigWillySite.com

MORE ARTICLES:

How To Cheaply and Powerfully Reposition Yourself On the Web
It goes without saying that all of us would like better response and conversion numbers from our websites. This is an ongoing dilemma which, unfortunately for many of us, remains a dilemma.

7 Simple Steps in Choosing Products for the Internet
You have decided to set up an internet store to earn money online. You know all the reasons why an internet store can be successful. But how do you choose the right product or service?

Top Five Self-Coaching Tips For Internet Businesses
Do new Internet businesses really need the services of a business Coach, even if they can afford it? Being that one of my roles is as an Internet business coach I am somewhat biased and would generally answer "yes" to my own question!

SEO - How To Calculate The Bandwidth And Disk Space For Your Website
A discussion of how the amount of bandwidth and disk space on your site can affect your SEO efforts and how to calculate how much you need.

The Academy of Computer Education (ACE) Offers New Courses to go along with a New Website
The Academy of Computer Education (ACE) launches new courses, new locations, and a new website. Over the coming weeks and months ACE will be expanding their geographic coverage to include population centers in and around Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, Seattle, WA and Boston, MA. They will offer new courses from VMWare and several other vendors along with additional offerings from their traditional vendors, including: Microsoft and Cisco Systems. Check out their new site for details - http://www.trainace.com/ -

Do You Hate Your Website? Web Site Sales To Hit $316 Billion Over The Next 6 Years
What dollar amount does your web site contribute to this $316 billion dollar trend?Have you spent thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands on your web site only to discover that it attracts more flies than customers?Do you hate your web site, your web developer or your entire IT department?Do not despair! You are not alone!A great web site is crucial in order to effectively communicate to a business's target audience. It is important for Chief Executives and small business owners to pay close attention to the effect that their web site has on their business.

Boston Web Design Branding - Brand Identity Guru
A branding company's website purpose is to design websites that will attract attention, give a professional image and support the message you are trying to convey in writing. There are arguments for doing your website design in-house.

How Do I Start An Internet Business And Still Maintain My Home Privacy
When operating your own business from home it doesn't mean that your private life is an open book to be read by the world. You would have to set boundaries for your professional and private life to insure that your work is not constantly interrupted by your family and friends. You will have to establish specific hours for work and at end of the work day go home. If you allow your home business to consume every moment of your day you will surely burn out and this will create a huge interruption to your private and family?s life.

Two Pillars of a Successful Web Site
For a web site to get close to fulfilling its potential, you need absolute clarity on two points. First, achieve clarity on what your site's core purpose is Is to provide information? Is it to complete direct sales? Is it to drive prospects to pick up the phone and call you? Is it to start a free trial? To register? The more companies I work with, especially larger ones, the more apparent it becomes to me that very few sites have absolute clarity of purpose.

How To Track Your Website Visitors
If you can?t measure it, you can?t manage it. It?s a clich?, but it?s true. As an online business you have understand how many visitors your site receives. You have to know how much time they spend there, where they come from, and what pages they view.

How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
When choosing web hosting for the first time many consumers are attracted to free and cheap web hosts. Many feel that they should not pay for a service that is available for free or at such a low cost that it might as well be free. There are three main differences between free, and paid web hosting. These differences are price, overall quality of service, and features. Before you sign up for a free web hosting read more to find out exactly what you are getting into.

Giving Voice To Your Marketing Personality On The Web
If You Don't Someone Else Will

Top 10 Content Rich Ideas For Your Website
With increased internet competition and search engine scrutiny, it's no wonder that web business owners lose business, become discouraged and drop out of the rankings.

Uncover Launches Nightlife Review Website
Uncover is the first social networking website dedicated to nightlife -- bars and clubs exclusively -- and brings you the best way to find places in your area before you go out. With reviews, photographs and social features such as profiles, friends, favorites, and more, Uncover makes it simple and enjoyable to contribute to the community.