Whether you plan to design and build your website yourself, or you are planning to hire a professional web design company, each and every website must possess a few key elements. These core elements are absolutely fundamental  the success of your website.

Take note of our tips below, as people that fail to follow these simple rules are among the millions of websites that are categorised and bad websites. Follow our 10 tips for web design below, and you will have a good foundation for the success of your website.

1. Plan your site. Map it out on paper, or using a simple computer application. Something as simple as word, or paint. Plan the navigation, layout, links, and rough look and feel. Ensure its consistent, easy to navigate, and the look and feel is pleasing and simple to follow.
2. Ensure you have an attention grabbing headline. Further to having a good headline, make it easy with the use of headings and sub headings for visitors to follow the general point of each page. Tell your visitors what you are all about, and what the website is selling or promoting.
3. Make it easy for visitors to provide you with their email address. Don’t ask for too much info. A good way to get information such as an email address is to link the address to something you are prepared to give to the visitor for free, such as a report or book.  
4. Use your Keywords properly. Get advice from a professional SEO company on how best to do this, but also try some of the free SEO tools available to perform quick checks on this. 
5. Navigation is important. Make your site easy to navigate. Make it simple, and obvious, and dont move the menu, or change it on each page. 
6. Create a blog, keep it updated, and promote it. Its a great way to keep people interested, and coming back to your site.
7. Make your site worth bookmarking, and prompt visitors to do so.
8. Where possible, give items away for free. This builds trust, credibility and starts you on the path to establishing some loyalty with visitors.
9. Request feedback from visitors, engage with them as much as possible, where possible. Take their feedback onboard and make relevant changes.
10. Dont clutter any page. Focus on the key point, keep it simple, and be consistent.

Once finished, look at the site objectively and ask yourself, is it a site you would enjoy navigating around. Is it easy to pick up the key messages, is it nicely designed? Once you answer yes, you are on the way to having a good website.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 8:24 am and is filed under Design & Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.