WebProNews

Whether you've yet to start building your website or you've already created it, you should look over these helpful tips for creating an efficient and well-designed site.

THE GOAL OF YOUR SITE

When you view the homepage of your site, is the goal immediately conveyed? Your visitors should know as soon as that page loads what it's about, what you can provide for them, and where they can go.

NAVIGATION SYSTEM

No page of your site should be more than 3 clicks away from the main page! This is a simple but very effective rule to follow when designing the navigation system for your website. If a page is more than 3 clicks away, it's buried too deep. Don't make the surfers at your site have to look too hard for what they're looking for. A search engine for your site is also a plus too.

LOAD TIME

Many website owners simply ignore this very important factor in designing sites. If the page takes more than 30 seconds to load the person will most likely leave. If they begin navigating your site and learn that each page takes 40 seconds to load, they'll probably look elsewhere for the information.

USEFUL, RELEVANT, UNIQUE CONTENT

Unless your site provides a product or services, its main focus will be on the content it provides. Those coming to your site will be looking for unique and relevant information on the topic of your site. In order to succeed, you need to provide unique content on a regular basis. If you want surfers to become repeat visitors, you'll need to provide them with a reason to return.

CONTACT INFORMATION

It's increasingly important to provide full contact information on your site. Directories such as Yahoo! have begun to check for contact information before listing sites, and visitors should be able to contact you too. If you sell a product or service, people will probably want to get in contact with you with their questions or feedback before buying. If your site provides information, providing an email address or contact form gives your visitors a way to send in feedback or report errors.

Hopefully these tips will help you build a better site or enhance your existing one. Consider those 5 things and you'll have a site worth visiting!

Dan Grossman of Awio Web Services LLC (http://www.awio.com)
blogs on internet marketing at http://www.dangrossman.info