Friday, December 18, 2009

Why Good Website Design Is Important

By Alison Rothwell

It's important that your website layout is logical and easy to navigate. Internet users who land on your website can get easily frustrated if it is difficult to find information they need, and with fast internet speeds and search engines offering many alternatives, it can be easier for them to simply exit your site and go somewhere else.

One of the easiest ways to organize your site is to look at your menus. Having clearly defined navigational choices will make finding pages much easier. It's also best to have links to all pages, and not lead users into a maze, clicking through to find the right link to their ultimate destination. Have a specific purpose for each page that you add, rather than flooding the site with many pages that could have been condensed into one or that are irrelevant to what you're selling, or your business overall.

It's also important that you name your pages accurately and clearly so that people can visit a page and see quickly exactly what information is located there. This saves users wasting time reading through information only to uncover that what they are looking for is not on the page. They are much less likely to keep searching if they think that other pages are going to be designed the same way.

It is also important to tag your pages correctly. This will lead users to the web page they need more often, rather than to homepages or unrelated information. They can easily land on your website on exactly the page they were seeking.

Finally, keep all of your content easily recognizable. Clearly mark changes in content or topic and where it makes sense, use bullet points instead of full sentences. This allows a quick glance at each point when looking for relevant details rather than a potential customer being turned away by having to read an essay to find one sentence of detail applicable to them.

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