Have you ever watched someone use your website? Do they
seem to find what they want right away and either click it or
start scrolling down?
Or do they get distracted, sidetracked, have trouble and
ultimately get bored?
If your answer is the second, you've got a problem.
Fixing Your Website
Whether your website is hard to read, too wordy, too laden
with images, or just laid out poorly, you can fix it. Website
stickiness is the quality to a website that holds viewers
there, encouraging them with one-more-interesting-item to
remain at your website; the longer they stick to your
website, the better your chances of making some money.
Just like with tape, your website's stickiness is better if it's
not cluttered with other stuff. If you're running other
people's banner ads on your site, now is the time to stop.
Banner ads are distracting and often unpredictable. With
slow computer speeds, the ones with multiple animations
(you know who you are, Low Rates!) will lock up a page so
that it doesn't load at all. Worse, if you're selling ad space
on your website to a service that sends up ads to random
but similar services, you may be advertising competitors on
your website without knowing it – even if the service
promises this won't happen!
So eliminate the banners now. If you have large graphics
(anything that is larger than 50 K is large), animations, or
Flash, lose them now, or move them off your home page.
Use the simplest possible web design: a menu across the
top, a menu across the bottom, and three columns between
the menus, keeping the bulk of your content in the center
column, where most people look. Don't use huge graphics at
the top of the page.
Newspapers have a philosophy called above-the-fold. This
means that the real estate of the paper on the front page
above the fold should hold the best and most important
stories in the paper. Similarly, you should keep your most
important real estate above the fold – in the part of your
page that shows up on the screen after the page has been
downloaded, and before any scrolling happens. This is why
people like banner ads – that's the most valuable part of
your page. Don't give it away.
In that crucial top part of your page, you should have:
A navigational menu
Your logo, kept small and preferably in the top left
corner
A title that will hook your viewer
The first part of your site's content
Besides this content, you should have – white space. Look at
the bulleted points above. They stand out nicely against the
rest of the text, right? You see them long before the items in
the middle of any given paragraph. That's because bullets
are designed to take advantage of white space.
Your most important points should always be surrounded by
white space.
Color and Design
White space doesn't necessarily mean your site should be
white; in fact, white backgrounds are sometimes harder to
read. Choose light colors for the background of your site,
and make sure your font is legible on more than one
computer with more than one browser.
If you've done everything recommended up to this point,
your home page should consist of:
A menu at the top of the page
Content right down the middle
A second menu or more information down the left side
of the page
Room for a sidebar or ads down the right side of the
page
A second menu or room for information about you and
your business along the bottom of the page.
Each of these items should be separated from the others
clearly by significant white space or by a graphic line. You
shouldn't get any fancier than that. If you have items or
sidebars you want to offset from the rest of the site, you can
use a different background color that doesn't contrast
harshly with your main color – yellows often work well for
this. Break up long articles, and if you have big chunks of
paragraphs, try to break them into smaller paragraphs.
Most importantly, you don't need any bells or whistles for
your site at all. Keep it simple.
Once your site's been cleaned up, have someone try to
browse it while you watch. If they have an easier time
finding what they're seeking, you've done your job right.
