Six Qualities of a Good Website

Websites today have become a very important platform for companies however small or big to showcase their products and services and increase their brand visibility. A good website not only entices its visitors but also ensures that they keep coming back for repeat visits.

Getting a website is no big task in today's world. With scores of small and big website development companies vying the customers, the customers are the happiest lot. However sometimes people may decide to create websites all by themselves. But creating websites or getting websites developed by people who have limited technological expertise and experience has its own risks. Economical and cost effective website may help save money but they may prove unproductive in the long run.. Such website may be low in quality and also not appeal to the target audience.

So whenever you plan to get a website for yourself, try take the help of a professional website designer or a company. You should also look for some very basic features and evaluate your website on the following parameters which constitute a good website:

1) Template- Choose best template that matches your work & company profile. Don't use free template available on the other site because these types of template are repeated on many websites and fail to give your company the required unique identity.

2) Content - Content is a soul of any website, so take your time to improve this section. Ensure you have content related to the theme of the website and also ensure availability of fresh content for each & every page. It will help attract new customers.

3) Meta Tag & Title - Each and every page should have a title & be supported by appropriate meta tags. This will help in getting good ranking in search engines like Google, Yahoo & MSN.

4) Internal navigation - Ensure that your website is properly interwoven. Try to keep internal pages maximum three click away from the index page.

5) Broken links - Cross check all the active links on the website. Broken link have a very bad impact on the customer & it also harm your search engine rankings.

6) Search Box - Include a search box option in the website. It will always help the customer in finding important information on the web site.

A good website is an asset for any organization. So the next time you think of getting a new website created or an existing website revamped do keep the above mentioned points in mind. Do talk to you website provider about the parameters and figure out the best deal before you finally decide to go ahead with any of them.

Web Design Myths

Myth 1: Web Design is For Techies

This couldn't be further from the truth. There is free software out there like CoffeeCup that will aid you with your design. The templates have already been pre-created, so all you do is choose the one you want and insert your text.

CoffeeCup also has an upload feature, and if your web host supports the software, you can save your work right to the web.

And if you want to take an even simpler route, there are web hosting solutions like Tonight that allow you to select a template, edit the page, and save your work right to the web with a few mouse clicks. Everything you need to build and manage your site comes with the web hosting package.

So before you go out and hire an expensive web designer, make sure you look into the solutions above. You may be able to get what you need at a much lower cost!

Myth 2: Flash Will Enhance Any Website

If you plan on using any enhanced features such as Flash, be sure to use it efficiently and sparingly.

Keep in mind that not every person is surfing with a high speed connection. Some people may still be crawling at 56 or even 28K, so this means the animation may take some time to load.

Remember, this feature should enhance the visit, not hinder it. You don't want people to become impatient and hit the back button before they even see your key message.

Additionally, people may not have the Flash plug-in installed on their PC so before they can view your site, they must wait for it to download.

Don't get me wrong, Flash can be a very nice enhancement to a web site if used effectively. Just make sure you test it out on a sample audience and get their feedback.

Also be sure to give your visitors the opportunity to view a "non Flash" version of your web site for those who cannot or do not wish to read the Flash version. You certainly don't want to lose visitors because people cannot view your site properly.

Myth 3: Lots of Colors Enhance A Web Site

Remember that actual humans will be reading your site so you want to make it as visually pleasing as possible. If your visitor's eyes hurt from reading your pages, they won't return.

Your site should consist of 2 to 3 colors max and remember that it's easier to read dark text on a light background. Even though red and purple may be your favorite colors, they don't generally team up very well for a text/background combination.

Also remember to make sure your hyperlinks are the same color on every page. Many believe you should only use the standard blue color for your links, but I disagree. As long as they contrast from the background and are consistent throughout your site, the color shouldn't matter.

Myth 4: You Can Never Have Too Many Images

When used sparingly, images can really enhance various pages on your web site. They are great for illustrating certain points, and if you're creating a personal site, you may want to add a photo album.

One very important thing to keep in mind about images is that they can make your pages load very slowly. If your page doesn't load within 10 seconds, you are in danger of losing many visitors.

Ideally, your pages should not be larger than 30K in size -- this includes the images and HTML. If you find that they are too large, use an image editing program to size your pictures down.

Additionally, ensure that all of your images are saved in the correct format. Photos should be saved in .jpg format (more colors), while web images, clip art, etc. should be saved in .gif format (fewer colors).

Also remember to always include the "height" and "width" HTML attribute on all of your images so your text will load first instead of waiting until all the images load.

Myth 5: Your Site Is Always Viewed Equally

This is a common mistake made by many webmasters. Just because your site looks fine on your PC, don't assume it looks that good everywhere.

Remember that different browsers handle HTML a little differently. So if you've checked your site in IE, make sure you also view it Netscape.

Also remember that not everyone has their resolution set to the same value. If you're building your site with your screen resolution set to 1024 x 768, make sure you view it in 800 x 600 as well. The latter is still the most popular, so you want to make sure your site looks fine there as well.

If you are using tables, you should set the widths in percentages rather than pixel values. That way if you have the width set to 80%, for example, it will take up 80% of the screen no matter what resolution you view it in.

On the other hand, if you set it to 900 pixels wide on your 1024 x 768 screen, it may look fine, but if someone else is viewing your site using 800 x 600, they will have to scroll left and right to view your entire page. That is a huge annoyance.

Remember to design for the masses!

The Easiest Way to Design a Website

By now, you probably know that in order to start a website, you need a domain name (yoursite.com) and a web host. But that's just the beginning.

Once you have those two things you'll need to take the next step and actually build your pages.

If you're a beginner, the best way to build and design a website is to use a pre-designed template and edit/customize that template using some web editing software.

If you plan on taking this route, be sure you use a standard host like this.

NOTE: If you use a host that already offers pre-built templates (WebSite Tonight, for example) then you don't need to read this tutorial. It won't apply to you.

How I Created This Site

To help you understand the website creation process better, I'll talk a little bit about how I created this site...

First, I bought this template ($24) at DreamweaverTemplates.net. After I purchased the template, I opened Dreamweaver and customized the template to my liking right through the software. Again, you can do this with any editor of your choice.

The nice thing about Dreamweaver is you can download it immediately from Adobe's site after purchasing.

So whatever software you decide to use, you'll need to open up the template files with your editor. Usually there is an index.html or index.htm that comes with the template. Use this page as your template to create the additional pages of your site.

Simply add your content right into the body of the page, and of course you can change the menu/navigation text (if applicable), logos, background colors etc. to customize the site to your liking.

A Word About Logos and Images...

Most templates come with placeholder logos/images. So you'll see a header image that says something like "Company Name." If you have web editing software, (I use PhotoShop), then you can customize these images for your site.

PhotoShop and Fireworks are quite expensive for the average consumer, so I would recommend an alternative solution if you are looking for something more cost-friendly.

I highly recommend PhotoShop, and remember if this is for a business you can write off the cost as a business expense.

Building a Large Site? Make It Easy to Update With Includes

After I bought my template, I created include files. That means if I update my left, right, top or bottom navigation, I only have to change one file and all the pages get updated at once.

If you plan on creating a large site, make sure you either buy a template that has include files or create them yourself. (Do a Google search for "creating include files" for help with this.)

This will allow you to update all pages at once. Include files have made my life much easier, especially since this site has over 130 pages.