1. Neat & clean. You really should cut the clutter on any kind of a web page. This can include anything from that which makes it difficult to navigate, extra frills and fluff that nobody cares about, ugly dated gradients all over the place… you name it, if it doesn’t serve a purpose it has to go. Simple is always better because it helps viewers get straight to the point. Nobody wants to turn themselves into a human filter to try to figure out what the point of a certain area of your site is all about. When in doubt, throw it out! If you don’t use it and your visitors are complaining you need to quit being so selfish and do what you need to do to keep their experience at your website a positive one. Also, watch out what you put together! Certain colors clash and look very obnoxious in groups. Don’t use typography that is difficult to read. Make sure everything is straightforward and don’t spend your time trying to hide information from them for the search engines. You could end up with a major penalty from the big dog, Google!
2. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Look around at your competitors. If you see something that you like, try to figure out how you can incorporate it into your site in an original way. It’s ok to borrow ideas as long as you are able to spin them to make them your own. Remember that nobody likes to buy something from a copy cat! This includes copying how they word things. Be your own unique personality and you won’t run into this kind of a problem in the first place when it comes to your marketing lingo.
3. Organize, organize organize! Do I need to say it again? Visual hierarchy is important to remember when it comes to the overall structure and FEEL of your website. You don’t want to make things messy and unstructured. Putting your logo strategically where people will see it and remember it is actually very important both for branding and organizational purposes, so don’t stuff it away. Be proud of it! And if you can’t be proud of it, get someone who can redo it for you! It’s not like it’s set in stone or anything. You CAN have someone do something over again if you don’t like it the first time. Better yet, fire whoever did it and get someone else who knows what they are doing and you should be good to go.
4. I want to stress again not to use horrible color combinations again. Listen, don’t put opposite colors on the color wheel together unless you are going to use a lot of white to dilute it! This can always be a nice trick if you want to have a colorful website without blinding the eyes of your visitors. After all, who wants to really try to read navy writing on a black background? Talk to a professional web development company to make sure your design is great. Additionally, Google can sense when you are trying to “hide” text and will give you a smack down!
