Web Hosting Blog

What makes you click the back button immediately? For me, it is tacky music with no “off” button.

Signs of Webmaster Newbies

All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.We spent hours at dhtml, javscript and graphics sites looking for copy-and-paste stuff that we thought would make our sites look impressive.

First timer’s sites are easily recognized with their smorgasboard of animated gifs, javascripts and other features. Unfortunately, this makes a site look amateur.

Creating an Amateur Image

You might have a brick and mortar business that’s been around for the last decade, with tons of satisfied customers.On the Internet, however, your visitors do not know your reputation.To establish trust, you want to have a professional image.  When designing your website, here are some things to avoid so that your business does not look amateur or like a fly-by-night operation:

• Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts - For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have “fancy” backgrounds with different colored text. Not only is this hard to read, but if you have a product line, it is difficult to make pictures of your product line blend in with the background.
• Pages that are larger than the browser screen - There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. The majority of web users use 1024 x 768 as their desktop resolution. Try to remain within those confines.
• Sound effects - Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. If you have a music site, you can create a jukebox that allows the user to click play if he or she wants to hear it. The same goes with audio advertisements or other background sound effects — have a pause or “off” button.
• “Cool” effects - About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Almost everyone was doing this. This does not help establish your online reputation. Flash introductions take a lot of effort to create and in the end, many are just downright stupid. These intros can take a long time to load and most people will not wait around to view them. Another thing that beginners think is “cool” are page fading effects, animated images and scrolling text. I added these types of things when I first started out, thinking it made me look talented. However, the harsh reality is that these effects are a wate of time and a turnoff. I’ve seen some sites, designed by supposed design specialists, where the links scroll by really fast and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Don’t bother including these effects. People are visiting your site for information or products, not a bunch of movement that’ll give them a headache.
• No clear navigation scheme - Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You should give your visitors a way to easily click through your site. Left and top menus are the most popular and are therefore familiar to your visitors. The key is that no matter where you place your menu, make sure that it is consistent throughout your site. A surefire indicator of an amateur web design is the absense of a navigation menu.
• No search feature - Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. Google’s fre search box is a tool that you can use if you don’t know how to include a search feature.  This makes your site “user friendly” and shows that you care about your visitor’s experience on your site.
• “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t try to force your potential customer into the shopping cart just to find out what the price is — it’s rude and many will not do it.
• Policies - An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. Providing contact information is an important “trust factor,” particularly if you are selling products or services.
• Under construction pages - “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. Do not link to a page until it is completed. Add a link to your menu or sitemap at such time as the page is completed.
• No online shopping cart - If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. If people are online to buy something, they want to be able to buy it immediately. Chances are, they don’t want to mail a check or money order. Paypal is a good option if you don’t have a merchant account and if you’re selling digital products, services like Clickbank are worth considering.  There are other quality shopping carts available for people who already have a merchant account, such as Mals-e.com, which also givesyou the ability to offer an affiliate program.

What’s Your Top Gripe?

Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.If you’re looking for giveaways, software and tips to help your fledgling online business, the Not Guru blog delivers plenty of resources every day.  Take the site design survey today and feel free to submit your comments - the results are quite interesting.