How To Build A Professional Website

  • By aga
  • •
  • 14 Jan, 2016

A professional website is a combination a six factors:

1. Design

The key to a well designed site is to create the right balance of stile and content, for example if your site is an informative site then you want to keep any movement to a minimal so as not to distract the viewer or you may have a site that is product orientated in which case you want to make it memorable by adding movement, product demonstrations and/or flash galleries. Whatever way you go it is always good to remember that the site is for your customer/viewer and not for the owner, for example just because you may think shocking pink and lime are a good color combination doesn't mean the large majority of your viewers agree.

 

2. Content

This is the single most important aspect of your site whether your selling/promoting a product or sharing information if you content has no substance people will lose interest and you will lose sales/return visitors.

 

Content should always be approached in an adult professional manner and not as a lot of webmasters do by replacing substance with annoying childish in your face tactics such as pop-ups, flashing adverts misrepresentation of product/service etc, people have been using the internet for long enough now to develop what's called ad-blindness which means 9 times out of 10 their brain will ignore the used-car-sales-man approach to sell or promote, here is an example of methods that some sites use to try and milk every person that lands on their site:

  1. Disabling the back button - you may have experienced this yourself you go to a site and for whatever reason you find out the site is not for you so you try to leave by clicking back but it just keeps loading the same page, imagine if this happen to you when you went into the 7-11 if you didn't buy something the attendant locks the door so you cant leave? I'm betting you would be in no hurry to return.
  2. Pop-ups - Most browsers now have pop-up blockers but the tacky-webmaster has managed to get around this by including layers with flash pop-ups the cover the content you are reading trying the get you to buy something else, this is just as rude as the above method and you would not tolerate it in a bricks and mortar store so don't expect your viewers to tolerate on your website.
  3. Bait and switch - A company that makes promises it doesn't intend to keep is a company that doesn't plan to stay in business too long, If a customer/viewer feels cheated they will do one of two things 1. complain to you and everyone else that will listen or 2. nothing which is worse for you as they are not coming back to your site and they not going to tell anyone else to visit ether.
  4. Contact info - you can always tell a reputable site by how easy it is to get in touch with them, every site should have at least one direct method of contact should it be an email address or phone number you would be surprised how this one simple thing will inspire user confidence.

3.. Navigation

This one is a no-brainer but it is surprising how many webmasters have no clue how to direct traffic around your site. A well designed site will have all the important links on every page and important information such as contact info should never be more than one click away at anytime

 

4. Load time

High speed internet is still relatively new in terms of user acceptance, you should never alienate dial-up users by only having a high-res images and large flash files weighing down your site this will be more important in the next few years as cell phones and PDA's with their own browsers become more common so is the need to keep your websites load time to its absolute minimal, this does not mean you have to have text only websites as there is a lot of methods to keep file size down without sacrificing presentation.

 

5. browser compatibility

The truth is that unless your site is text only there is no real way to make sure it is 100% viewable on all web browsers with that being said you should be shooting for 99% this is not done by stripping away all your bells and whistles to your site this is done by making sure it is not noticeable, for example if you are viewing this site on internet explorer you will notice the the scroll bar to the right is dark blue yet on Fire fox and opera this is not compatible yet the site is designed in such a way that these viewers will not notice.

 

6. Accessibility

Website accessibility is making your website visible to the visual impaired and to text only browsers, you may think this is not a big deal but the reward for this makes the effort worthwhile, the way your site looks to text only browsers is the way WebCrawler's see your site when searching the web so if your site is optimized to viewed in a text browser there is more chance your site will get good page position on web searches.

What You Can Do And What You Should Do

By aga • January 16, 2016
There is basically nothing you can’t do on a web site. If you want to have DVD quality video streaming from your home page with multiple flash animations and 3D product demonstrations all on the same page, no problem. However, maybe 10% of your viewers will see it. The other 90% will be sitting looking at a blank screen for a couple of hours until it loads and then it will be dependent on how it plays on their system. The key to web design is not what you can do; it’s what you should do.

Truth About Link Swapping

By aga • January 16, 2016
Once you become a site owner you will get a lot of requests to swap links with other sites in an attempt to increase your search ranking and the reciprocal's site ranking. There is nothing wrong with this in itself, however, there are a few things you need to know in order to make this a successful practice.

Guaranteed Top Ranking On Search Engines

By aga • January 16, 2016
Bottom line is, this is a myth. No company can guarantee this. The reason being Yahoo, Google and MSN are companies and companies are in business to make money. That is why they all offer their own sponsored links placed at the top or on the side of the search results. This could be pay-per-click, meaning you pay every time somebody clicks on the link to your site or it can be a set monthly fee.

Perception Is Not Reality

By aga • January 16, 2016
If you buy software for a MAC and try to run it on a PC, it will not work. The internet is the same. IE (Internet explorer) is not the only web browser out there and what may run great on IE may not run on Firefox or Opera, which makes up an increasing amount of internet users. Even different versions of IE will not display some features of your site.

To Flash Or Not To Flash

By aga • January 16, 2016
There is no doubt about it. Flash is the best tool in any web designers arsenal. It is easy to use with phenomenal results. You can create a full blown website in a couple of hours and the file size can be less than the size of your average .JPEG file, but (and this is a big but) it is still a plug-in. This means that you have to download and install the latest flash player in order to view the website. It is really not a big deal if you are an intermediate to advanced user, which is what maybe 60% of Internet users are. However, that other 40% of people may not feel secure having to download and install software on their computer in order to view your site. Another downside of a flash based site is the fact that web crawlers cannot see the text content contained within the file. This means it has no way to index your site, which can lead to poor search engine ranking. Don't be put off with the down sides of flash. There are ways around these problems.

System Requirements

By aga • January 16, 2016
If you have ever purchased software, you know you have to read the box in order to find out if the software will work on your system. That is somewhat acceptable when it comes to software. However, on a website, it is not acceptable. A lot of designers out there will take the easy route and build a site that is not compatible with all browsers and then publish a list of plug-ins on your home page you will need in order to view the site. You will see this a lot on multimedia sites that advertise Hollywood movies or websites where you can download multimedia content. This is mostly done to protect the content. However, there are a lot of sites out there that require you to make additional downloads in order to see flat text content or products. You should always follow the guidelines below (or your web developer should be following them) when creating any website.

Batteries Not Included

By aga • January 16, 2016
We have all done it - made a big purchase only to find out that we have to make additional purchases to make it work. This should not be the case with a website or any graphic design project. Be sure that when you are quoted for a web site everything is included in the price in order for your new site to be up and running at the end of the project. The price should include uploading and testing the site. This is also true for any graphic project. If it’s a logo design, then you should receive all file types, including .EPS, .JPG, and .GIF, at no additional charge. One way to guarantee this is to make sure it is in the quotation and never, I repeat, never send final payment until you have everything you have paid for.

The Enemy Within

By aga • January 16, 2016
There is a common problem with some less than reputable companies creating backdoors into your site in order to obtain access to your Databases and account information with the intention of fraud or theft. This usually happens when you outsource to third world countries because the price is a fraction of what you would pay here. Bottom line here is if something seems to good to be true, chances are it is. Saving some money on development may in the long run cost you tenfold.

Catching The Crooks

By aga • January 16, 2016
The internet can be a dangerous place. It has opened the doors for lots of criminals to move undetected. When it comes to web design, there is a certain level of trust that has to be established in order for this process to work. After all, a lot of the time you will be giving a stranger access to account information, your email and your clients' information. I have lost count of how many times clients have told me they have suffered financial loss and even, in some extreme cases, had their safety threatened. However, there are ways to protect yourself.

Myths About Search Engine Optimizing (SEO)

By aga • January 16, 2016
This is what most SEO companies would like you to believe because it means you will keep paying them monthly fees. The truth is, if you optimize the site correctly and stick to the search engines rules, there is nothing more you have to do. Search engines are designed for the consumer and not the company. What this means is, if your site is relevant to the search that the user enters, it will appear in the results. The more relevant, the higher your site will be listed.