Rules for Creating a Website

This article was originally posted on eHow.com. However, the link for the article no longer works and I was able to access the information from the WaybackMachine. The link to the original article, which doesn’t work, is here. A link to the article on WaybackMachine is here.

Almost any business wanting to go somewhere needs to have a website. Whether it is a small, personal business; a large corporation; or just a site used to blog, there are several rules that should be followed to allow the website to be successful and drive visitors to it, instead of away from it.

Easy to Read

One of the most important rules behind website design is to make sure the text on the website is readable. This means you don’t want to use light-colored text on a pale background, dark-colored text over dark graphics, small or hard-to-read text or backgrounds with patterns that make text difficult to read.

Some folks make the mistake of putting text into images. This causes a problem for search engines as well as for people who would like to make the text larger, but can’t because it is in an image.

Easy to Navigate

Visitors should be able to navigate between all pages of the site with ease. A common navigation menu for every page is one solution available for easier navigation. Another method is to have a site map available that contains all links to all pages within the site.

Links should stand out, whether they be graphical or displayed in different-color text so the user can differentiate them from normal text.

Consistent Design

Similar to how newspapers and magazines maintain a consistent typeface and design style throughout the publication, websites should do the same. While the content of each page is unique, the overall colors, design, navigation and fonts should stay the same. This consistency creates a professional image and doesn’t make your visitor think they’ve gone to a different site when they’ve gone to a different page. For example, if most of your site has a white background with black text, then one of the pages displays a black background with blue text, the stark difference in the page colors and design could make the visitor think they’ve gone to a different site by accident, a common mishap negotiating the Web.

Search Engine Friendly

Websites should be search engine-friendly, in order to allow for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO allows for your site to be scanned by search engines resulting in increased matches to viewers’ interests. If you are using a Content Management System (CMS), you can customize the SEO settings to fit your needs. An important part of SEO is having text on the pages of your website rather than just images or flash containing text. Search engines don’t search images for text, so much of the content on an image-dominated site will not generate any Web traffic. Meta-tags and CMSes that use tags should have keywords associated with the site to make it more search engine-friendly.

Quick to Download

If your website is full of large graphics and takes forever to download, your visitors will not want to view the site or come back. If a site is slow to load, viewers lose interest. Some tips to prevent sites from downloading slowly are to keep graphics, especially animated graphics and flash graphics, to a minimum. If you have a photo gallery, use thumbnails that then link to larger versions of the images that you want seen.

Remember Your Audience

Your visitors should be able to know what your site is about, from the very first page. Content should be short and concise. Most website visitors have a short attention span, so they want to find what they want. If they can’t, they leave.

Also, content should be relevant to the site. If the site is about apple pies, for instance, you shouldn’t have pages regarding banana smoothies and the health benefits of bananas.