When it comes to your website, you want to get it right the first time. Pay extra attention to every little detail to make sure your site performs the way you want it to. Here are five important things to consider to make sure your website performs well.
1) Avoid splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose other than serving as Google bait. Splash pages are usually built for search engines, not for the visitor. It’s just one more click that your visitor has to make to get into your site. Your visitors will feel more welcome if they get what they want right away! Don’t make them open a door – show the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Go easy on the banner ads
You know what I’m talking about – you arrive on a site and there are more flashing ads than content. Our eyes are trained to avoid these ads, so don’t waste valuable real estate. Provide valuable content and weave selected ads and affiliate links in where appropriate. Banner ads are fine in moderation – just don’t overdo it, and be sure that the products you’re promoting will provide real value to your customer.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
We’ve talked about this before. It’s important to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even someone who isn’t comfortable with computers will be able to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. Don’t make your visitors think. If your site is hard to navigate, your visitors will leave.
4) Give your visitor a map and some breadcrumbs
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, it’s easy to forget where you are. Breadcrumb navigation helps the visitor see exactly where they are on your site and how they got there. Help them browse relevant information and navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!
5) Let the visitor control the audio and video on your site
It’s so annoying when a site loads and immediately starts playing music or video. If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make absolutely sure that controls are available and easy to find. A pause button, volume control, etc. will work just fine.
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