Making your own website is a great idea from a financial standpoint. Free sites are now available from multiple different providers, or you can get a cheap domain name for your business. Software programs mean that no coding knowledge is necessary, and thus many companies are doing their own site. However, every designer needs to know how to avoid some common web design mistakes, in order to make a useful site.
One thing not to fall prey to is the idea of an interesting background. Although they are visually interesting, this can actually be a bad thing, because it distracts people from the information that they actually need to know or are looking for. Make sure to choose a suitable text color to go with your background color, as well.
Use brilliant colors only sparingly. Certain hues (the various neon ones, mostly) can seem very unprofessional, and should probably be avoided altogether. If you do choose to use a bright color, make sure that it is used for attention-catching purposes (such as pointing customers towards a sale item). Otherwise, it can draw the eye away from where you want it to be.
A single, bright graphic is a good choice for a top corner of the page. It gives the website visual interest, but draws the eye to where it should be. Usually, this image should be near the beginning of your menu, links, or contact information. Whatever it is, this is likely the first place the eye will go on the page, and you want it to be useful.
Nothing makes a website more tedious than finding out that the links don’t work, so always double-check that links work and go to the right places after updating. Consider the color of clicked links when you are considering the color for the background and the rest of the text. Arrange your links in neat menus, so that everything a customer could be looking for is obvious.
Make sure that you can find the business’s contact information easily. If you don’t have a way for customers to get a hold of you, you might miss finding out important information, like when a link doesn’t work, or the coding is wrong. Obviously, the most important information is different for brick and mortar businesses, versus online ones. Although email is important, every online business should have a phone number available, as well, in case a customer needs to talk to a real person.
Update regularly, and list the date of your last update on the site. There is nothing so annoying to a person who is considering coming to your business as finding out that you haven’t updated in years and no longer carry what they want, or have moved and didn’t update your address. Having a recent update date on your website marks the information as reliable.
It isn’t that hard to make a workable website. As long as your avoid some common web design mistakes, your page should be functional and effective without a lot of work. If you want to hire a designer later, you can always do so, but many businesses get by just fine doing their own.
The right web design is certain to enhance the quantity of your business web pages traffic. Finding a knowledgeable and experienced web design company ensures an attractive and effective online presence.
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