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The first immutable law of effective navigation: It’s gotta be readily available.

Visitors should not have to hunt for your navigation or wonder where to find it. If you’ve done your job right, it will be right there when they are ready for it.

The struggle in creating good navigation is to figure out what type of navigation the visitor is going to need, when he is going to need it, and where the most effective placement will be.

Basically, you have to anticipate your visitors needs and have a solution ready.

Here are four key areas where you can squeeze out the most effectiveness:

1. Global navigation.

Global navigation is a set of links to all the main areas of your site that is available on every page of the site in the same place. Global navigation is a must-have, because it gives visitors ready access to the key areas on your site.

If you don’t have this type of navigation, visitors tend to get lost. They lose their ability to easily move around between the main sections.

When you use global navigation, visitors develop a sense of familiarity with your site because the site is consistent. When they need to find something, they know right where to look for it.

Global navigation should be across the top of the page or down the left side, since these two places are where visitors will look first.

Also, it’s crucial that global navigation be in the first fold of the page. This means it needs to be visible in the first window the visitor sees before they scroll down. Since these options represent the most crucial sections of your site, it’s imperative that visitors see them immediately. Never put your main navigation below the fold.

2. Spotlighted navigation.

On many sites, there are a few navigation options that get the spotlight in the center of the main page. The concept is great–hook visitors with the key areas right up front.

However, many people completely miss the boat because they focus on the wrong links. Frequently, they link to the company history or the mission statement.

Wrong focus. Visitors don’t care.

You have to concentrate on what’s important to your reader and what they want to see. What are the most important places visitors are likely to go on your site? Which pages are really crucial? Put those things front and center.

As with global navigation, all spotlighted links should also be above the fold. This point might seem obvious, but I’ve seen quite a few sites recently that almost hide the important links. They are buried too far down in the site.

One site in particular placed the two most important links at the bottom of the page, completely out of site. Big mistake: visitors just won’t see them.

Although navigation usually shouldn’t be the primary focus of your page (that honor belongs to content), it should be given a prime position.

3. Contextual navigation.

Contextual navigation refers to links that give more info about something specific the visitor is trying to do.

On every page of your site, you’ll have to anticipate the questions a visitor is going to have. Figure out what kind of additional information they might need. Then provide links to that information at the precise place that they will have the question.

One good rule is that any time you refer to information on another page of your site or on a third party’s site, link directly to that info. Don’t make them hunt and peck trying to find it for themselves. Make it readily available.

4. Bottom-of-the-page navigation.

Whenever the visitor gets to the end of a page, they are left hanging. They have finished whatever it is they were working on, and now they need somewhere else to go.

This is a critical moment, because it is terribly easy for a visitor to leave if you don’t give them somewhere to go. It is your responsibility to point them in the right direction.

Never, never, never leave visitors without suggestions at the bottom of a page.

If possible, you should try to decide on 1-3 places that the visitor is most likely to want to go next. Think about your most important goals for them. Then guide them in that direction.

Always make sure there is at least one link at the bottom of a page.

You must make it easy for visitors to do what you want them to do. Always ask yourself…

Where are my visitors going to need a link and how can I make that link really obvious to them?

The great debate: how much copy you should have on your site, particularly on the home page?

Do you subscribe to the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words–and therefore images, not a lot of text, should be the main thrust of your home page? Or do words have more power to capture a visitor’s attention and compel them to buy–meaning you should aim for powerful copy? As a graphic designer, my natural inclination is to create graphically-rich, light text websites. Since I’m focused on what a site looks like visually, I like using impressive images, bold splashes of color all over the page, and not very much copy. The end result is an attractive, visually-appealing site, with very few words. However, I’ve learned that I have to balance this inclination with a cold hard reality: what appeals to me as a designer is not necessarily the same as what visitors need.

The main problem with websites that don’t have any copy is that they fail to quickly and effectively communicate the three points that all commercial websites must get across: You must explain what your company does, what the benefits are of using your product or service, and why prospective customers should purchase from you. These important pieces of information can only be conveyed vaguely, if at all, through images. While pictures are often very useful in reinforcing a message, it’s difficult to succinctly drive home these important points solely through images.

On your website, visitors want specifics, and they want them quickly. They want you to tell them exactly what you can do for them, and they want to know right now. You must specifically state what you do and explain how your product or service is going to make your customers’ lives better. You have to spell out why people should buy from you versus your competitors.

Particularly on a home page, you must catch a visitor’s attention and give them a reason to stay on your site. If you don’t do this immediately, they’ll be gone.

For this purpose, words are far more effective than images. In almost all cases, pictures cannot communicate the message nearly as specifically or quickly as well-chosen words can.

It’s important to remember that the web revolves around information. People use the web to find out what they need to know, to be informed on topics that are important to them. That almost always means they are looking for text. They want explanations, answers, reasons, and motivation.

I firmly believe that pictures and images enhance a website, but they should be used to provide a tasteful, professional frame for your copy, not replace it.

It is true that web users are notorious for having short attention spans and not wanting to read large amounts of copy. However, the problem is that most of the copy on websites today is vague and not enticing. It’s focused on the company rather than the customer. So it should be no surprise that visitors avoid reading it.

The solution does not lie in eliminating text-based communication; it means we have to work harder to capture interest with copy. People DO read copy that catches their attention.

If visitors are met with paragraphs that are focused on them, that are rich with benefits, and that are formatted in easy-to-read chunks, they are much more likely to be drawn in and to act on your offer.

Don’t focus strictly on graphics. Go for copy.

Never put form over function. Why? Because it’s crucial that visitors actually be able to USE your site. Everything you do must be designed to be as easy for the visitor to understand as possible. Everything should be functional first.

If you put form before function, you sacrifice your visitor’s best interest for your own preferences. By definition, putting form over function means you sacrifice function–you make it harder to perform whatever task is supposed to be performed. You give up ease of use or simplicity in order to make it look nicer. Basically, you wind up with a lot of icing and no cake.

Don’t get me wrong–form often accentuates function, just like icing accentuates a cake. Something that is visually pleasing often increases the usability by making it more attractive or by using visual elements to increase understanding. Creative design can often be used to make a task easier to perform. It can entice the visitor to take whatever action you want them to take.

However, on the web, there are frequently contests between form and function. Designers make choices between whether to make something look nicer or make it simpler and easier to use. For example, these are common ways of sacrificing function:

• Using an uncommon style of links that makes it hard to recognize the links.
• Putting a textured background behind the copy, even though it will make the text harder to read.
• Choosing a font color that doesn’t have enough contrast with the background color.
• Using a font face that is difficult to read.
• Using an uncommon name for a common link. For example, “Talk” instead of “Contact us”.
• Placing elements in unexpected places. Like putting the logo on the right side of the page or placing the main navigation along the bottom of the design.
• Using a splash page on the site because it looks neat, even though it keeps visitors from getting to the real information in the site.
• Using a lot of fancy images that make the page load more slowly.
• Opting for a totally graphical design with no copy on the main page. Regardless of the fact that visitors won’t have a clue what the business is all about until they get further into the site.

These are all examples of choosing form over function. Unfortunately, if your design looks great but is hard to figure out, your visitors will be gone. They don’t come to your site to admire the looks; they come to use the site–to find information or to accomplish a task. Anything you do to stand in their way is a no-no.

Most of the time, a visitor’s attention span is about as long as snake fur. They have no patience. If you complicate their lives, they’re outta here. Other sites are ready and waiting to meet their needs, so there is no reason they should struggle through your site. If you opt for form over function, you’re likely to opt yourself right out of sales. Not good.

When you’re designing your website, don’t think about looks first. Always make function a priority. Think about what’s going to be easiest for your visitors to use and understand. Then create an attractive presentation to accentuate it.

Don’t mess with those links! When you’re designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state–blue and underlined. We all want to be creative and not do the bland, expected, normal thing. We want to change our links to red, green, yellow, even black–anything but blue. And we have the urge to take off those underlines.

Resist the temptation. It’s hard. But there’s a good reason to leave them alone.

From the earliest days of the web, text links have been blue. People intuitively recognize that blue, underlined text is a link. They know they can click on it.

The combination of blue and underlines means “If I click on this, it goes somewhere”. We’re conditioned to recognize those distinguishing characteristics. We’re like Pavlov’s dogs–we see the link and instantly know what it means. There’s no time wasted in trying to figure out whether or not that particular word or phrase is clickable.

If you mess with the natural appearance of a link, you lose that instant recognition. People have to stop and think (and often click) to figure out what your colors mean. I have watched countless people try to navigate websites and spend half their time figuring out what’s a link and what’s not. They have no way of knowing.

In addition, people scan a page for links. They like to be active on the internet, and they like to know what they can do. When they recognize a link in your copy, it’s a clear signal of someplace to go. Visitors want to know what their options are. It’s not a good idea to make life difficult. They’ll appreciate coming across a site that’s easy to use and doesn’t try to confuse them (for once!).

It is becoming more acceptable to use other colors for your text links, as long as they remain underlined. But if you can, it’s still best to use blue. This is because so many people use underlined, colored text on their sites that is NOT linked. Visitors have a tendency to get confused. They never know what to expect. With blue, it’s obvious.

Some people have brought up the point that if we stick to the status quo, there will never be any improvements in the system.

My answer: In a medium like the web, forward movement will never be a problem. The web continues to push ahead, regardless of whether your site jumps on the bandwagon or not. There will always be new growth, no matter what your site does.

The question is, when is it appropriate for your site to adopt the latest fads? To answer that question, you must keep in mind your site’s purpose and your audience.

If your site is technology oriented, and your visitors are technically-minded and on the cutting edge, then going for the latest trend is more appropriate.

But if your site is focused on an average web user, it’s different. If you’re sellling a product/service, communicating information, or driving any specific action, you need to keep your visitors focused on that goal. You shouldn’t distract them with trying to learn a new set of skills and standards just so they can navigate your site.

Never move faster than your audience is ready to move. At this point in time, people still struggle with being able to recognize links. A majority of people have a difficult time finding what they want. If they are still struggling, your site needs to accomodate them.

As more and more people become comfortable with advances in technology and design style, it will be appropriate to incorporate those advances into your site. Just wait until your audience is ready.

Final thoughts: If the context of your site makes it clearly obvious what is a link and what is not, it is sometimes permissible to use a color other than blue for your links. For this to work, your copy should have no colored text that isn’t linked (with the exception of headings) and no underlined text that isn’t linked. Only use another color if you are sure that visitors won’t have any trouble recognizing your links.

The main point: Visitors shouldn’t have to think about what is a link and what isn’t. Whatever you can do that maintains instant recognition is great. Go for it!

Choosing a domain name is a very important first step for anyone starting a business on the Internet. This name is the first impression that strangers are going to have about you and your business. You are going to need to give this decision some real thought.

It is very likely that you have a name in mind already. Something catchy, perhaps? Something that has meaning to you. Maybe you always wanted to name your business after you grandchild, or your favorite pet. I strongly urge you to reconsider.

In the very informative book, The Invisible Touch, Harry Beckwith has some unique ideas about naming a business. He touches on saying your proposed name out loud, slowly. How does it really sound? He cites the name Facial Aesthetics. Sounded out slowly, it becomes ?fa shil ass thet icks?. Doesn?t sound so good now, does it? Get opinions from others, and then really listen to what they have to say, objectively.

The next thing to consider is whether or not your name says anything about your business. Some years ago, I was friends with a lady who had a business named ?Heather?s Feathers?. So, what do you think that this business sold? Feathers? Birds? Bird products? Nope, it sold emu oil. And Heather was her 4 year-old daughter?s name. Consider what you would think of when you see a business name.

You may love your family name. If you are thinking of naming your business after yourself, however, you really need to give it some thought. I have never forgotten these two businesses, whose names I saw on billboards years ago: Crouch Equipment and Tick Insurance. Now you may say to yourself that I remember these names after years. True, but not for their products or their service!

You also run a risk if you choose a name that is too, let me say? mystical. You may know what you mean when you name your business Mystic Blue Nights, but how many other people will?

Don?t choose a domain name that reads like a book. It is difficult for the average person to remember long domain names. It may be descriptive to get lowcostdiabeticrecipesforalloccasions.com, but it is not going to be memorable, and you run the risk of people misspelling it and not being able to find you. Watch out for the use of dashes, too. People don?t expect them, so instead of visiting your site, Pickles-R-Us, they could wander to your competitor ?pickelsrus? instead. Trying to be clever and tweak a competitor?s name could backfire on you.

If the name that you really want is not available as a .com, go and look at the .com site before you choose .net, or one of the other extensions that are becoming available, such as .info and .tv. People think .com first, and if they are looking for you and put .com in by mistake, you sure don?t want them to end up at some porn or hate site.

You are going to have to live with your choice of domain names for a long time. Take your time and choose wisely.

Introduction

Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have web design experience within your company. Building your web site will take time and a little homework!

To create a web site for your business, follow these 4 simple steps:

1. Establish your goals
2. Determine your budget
3. Pick a web design company
4. Pick a web hosting company

Establish Your Goals

Before you begin looking for company to help you design and build your web site, take the time to understand the goals of your web site. This will be extremely important to help set expectations with the web design company you choose.

In order to set your web site goals, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why do you want a web site?
2. Are you selling something?
3. Do you have a catalog of products that changes on a regular basis?
4. Who is your target market?
5. Do you already have a brand?
6. What is your industry?
7. Who are your competitors?
8. Do they already have web sites? If so, what do they look like?
9. If you’re selling something, will you accept credit cards over the internet?
10. How soon do you want your web site?
11. What happens if you never create a web site for your business?

Take the time to answer each of the above questions and if you have time, write the answers down on a sheet of paper. These are the same questions most web design companies will ask you before they begin to create your site. If you have these questions answered up front, you will have some criteria for choosing the right web design company. For example, if you are a real estate agent, and want to publish listings on your web site, you should seek a web design company that knows about the real estate business and has created web pages for other real estate agents.

Determine Your Budget

How much do you want to spend on your web site. Web sites can cost you anywhere from $100 to $100,000 depending upon what you want it to do. Know your spending constraints before you begin negotiating with design companies. Whatever you do, do not tell a web design company what your budget is!! Always get pricing based on your needs, not you budget.

Pick a Web Design Company

Your choice of a web design company is a very important step. Take your time to investigate all of your options. Here are some important items to consider.

Design vs. Build

Depending upon the scope of your web site, you may need to choose two different companies. Building a web site is a highly technical process. Designing a web site is a highly creative process. Many advertising firms specialize in web site design which does not necessarily require any web development skills whatsoever. The process of creating a web site is similar to the process of building a new home. Before you ask a construction company to start building, you first seek out an architect who creates a blueprint of your house taking into account what you want (number of stories, square footage, etc.). Creating a detailed blueprint before construction begins can help you accurately estimate the final price. Without the blueprint, you may end up paying a lot of money for a house that does not fit your needs. Creating a web site is exactly the same except most web site “builders” also claim to be “designers”. The good news is that you can look at other sites a web design company has created (like looking at other homes that a home builder has made). Make sure you ask the web design company what their process is for designing a web site vs. building a web site. They should understand the difference between these two concepts. If they don’t, they’re probably builder that think they can also architect.

Evaluate Experience

Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience? As with any services company, choosing someone that has relevant experience. If you want to sell products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience doing just that?

Review the Portfolio

A well established web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Ask for links to other site the design company has created and review each one. Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you? In addition to reviewing web sites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the web design company. Were they happy with the results? Did they get what they paid for? How much did they pay? Would they recommend them? How long did it take? What didn’t they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions?

Compare Prices

Pricing for creating a web site can vary. Typically, web design companies will charge one of three ways:

1. Time and materials: price is variable based on the actual number of hours spent working on your site. For example, a web design company may charge you $75 per hour. If it takes 100 hours to create your web site, your price would end up being $7,500.
2. Fixed Price: some design companies will charge you a fixed fee based on a fixed set of requirements. If you outline your requirements very carefully, many web design companies will quote you a single price.
3. Component Pricing: some design companies will charge “by the page”. By creating a price based on the number of pages, you can control the cost by designing a specific number of pages. Buyer beware: some design companies will charge by the page but will have “special pricing” for components such as custom graphics, animated images, and the like.

The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal unless all of the costs are well understood up front. Also make sure that you understand what “done” means. Try and structure the payments such that a significant portion of the fees (20%) are not due until you “accept” the final web site. Include the agreed-upon dates in your contract and provisions for what will happen if these dates are not met.

Solicit bids from multiple web design companies and compare both the pricing models and the prices themselves.

There are thousands of web designers across the country and they should all fight feverously for your business! Be picky! If a web design company dismisses any of your questions regarding their design process, pricing, or client references, take your business elsewhere!

About The Author Andy Quick is co-founder of Findmyhosting.com (http://www.findmyhosting.com), a free web hosting directory offering businesses and consumers a hassle free way to find the right hosting plan for their needs. Feel free to contact Andy at andy@findmyhosting.com in case you have any questions or comments regarding this article.

1. Don’t load your web site with a lot of high tech clutter. Your visitors may miss your whole sales message.
2. Don’t use unnecessary words or phrases on your site. You only have so much time to get your visitor’s attention and interest; make ever word count.
3. Don’t make the mistake that everyone will totally understand your web site message. Use descriptive words and examples to get your point across.
4. Don’t write your strongest point or benefit only once. You should repeat it at least 3 times because some people may miss it.
5. Don’t push all your words together on your web site. People like to skim; use plenty of headings and sub headings.
6. Don’t use site content your target audience isn’t interested in. If people are coming to your site to find info about fishing don’t include soccer content.
7. Don’t use 50 different content formats all over your web site. Use the same fonts, text sizes, text colors, etc.
8. Don’t use words your web site visitors might not understand. People are not going to stop and look in a dictionary, they will just go to another site.
9. Don’t let selling words and phrases go unnoticed. Highlight important words and phrases with color, bolding, italics, underlining, etc.
10. Don’t forget to use words that create emotion. All people have emotions, people will have more interest when they are emotionally attached.

When browsing the internet you are likely to come across many different image formats. However, the most common formats are: CompuServe GIF, JPEG, and Bitmaps.

CompuServe GIF

GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format and was standardized by CompuServe in 1987. The very first GIF format was GIF87a and saves images at 8 pits-per-pixel with a colour level of 256. Then in 1989 CompuServe updated the GIF format to include animation, transparency, and interlacing, which was called GIF89a. Apart from animation, transparency, and interlacing there is little difference between to two.

JPEG

The JPEG image format was developed by Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG’s best feature is the compression, you can compact the image file to make it the size smaller (bytes). The problem with this format is that there is a trade-off details detail and size. Generally its best to save JPEG’s at 50% compression.

Bitmaps

Bitmaps was invented by Microsoft (everyone’s favourite company). The Bitmap format saves your image pixel for pixel, in other words, what ever you see on the screen before you save is what you see when you open the image again. The only drawback is that the file sizes can be extremely large, which may result in longer download/upload times

Untill recently, building a web site was not much fun. You had to know HTML, FTP and have good design skills. When it was finished you had to register a domain name and choose a web hosting service.

The alternative was to get a web site designer to do all of this for you but at a price. Generally a good price!

That was how things used to be done.

However, now the technology has moved on and anybody who is prepared can learn how to create a web site themselves. Today, we have all-in-one packages that allow you to build a web site, research the keywords, submit it to the search engines and build an online store in the one package.

The advantages of these all-in-one packages are that they save money as all the tools are in the same package. It saves a lot of time learning how to set up your business and it is easy to run because of the brilliance of the tools at your disposal.

Two of the best of these web site building packages are Site Build It and Third Sphere.

To have a look at the benefits of using Site Build It go to: http://www.merchant-account-service.com/sitebuildit.html

To have a look at Third Sphere go to: http://www.merchant-account-service.com/thirdsphere.html

The key to these packages is that instead of grappling with the complex technology of the internet, you can ignore all this and get on with the vital business of marketing your online business.

Even web site designers are using these all-in-one packages to save time and passing them on to their customers who assume building a web site is a technical matter best left to the web site designer!

(c) John lynch

Squeezing the most efficient performance from your web pages is important. The benefits are universal, whether the site is personal or large and professional. Reducing page weight can speed up the browsing experience, especially if your visitors are using dial-up internet access. Though broadband access is the future, the present still contains a great deal of dial-up users. Many sites, ecommerce sites especially, cannot afford to ignore this large section of the market. Sites with a large amount of unique traffic may also save on their total monthly traffic by slimming down their web pages. This article will cover the basics of on-page optimization in both text/code and graphics.

Graphics

Graphics are the usual suspect on heavy pages. Either as a result of a highly graphic design, or a few poorly optimized images, graphics can significantly extend the load-time of a web page. The first step in graphics optimization is very basic. Decide if the graphics are absolutely necessary and simply eliminate or move the ones that aren’t. Removing large graphics from the homepage to a separate gallery will likely increase the number of visitors who “hang around” to let the homepage load. Separating larger photos or art to a gallery also provides the opportunity to provide fair warning to users clicking on the gallery that it may take longer to load. In the case of graphical buttons, consider the use of text based, CSS-styled buttons instead. Sites that use a highly graphic design, a common theme in website “templates”, need to optimize their graphics as best as possible.

Graphics optimization first involves selecting the appropriate file type for your image. Though this topic alone is fodder for far more in depth analysis, I will touch on it briefly. Images come in 2 basic varieties, those that are photographic in nature, and those that are graphic in nature. Photographs have a large array of colors all jumbled together in what’s referred to as continuous tone. Graphics, such as business logos, are generally smooth, crisp and have large areas of the same color. Photographs are best compressed into “JPEGs”. The “Joint Photographic Expert Group” format can successfully compress large photos down to very manageable sizes. It is usually applied on a sliding “quality” scale between 1-100, 1 being the most compressed and lowest quality, 100 the least and highest quality. JPEG is a “lossy” compression algorithm, meaning it “destroys” image information when applied, so always keep a copy of the original file. Graphics and logos generally work best in the “GIF”, or more recently, the “PNG” format. These formats are more efficient than JPEGs at reducing the size of images with large areas of similar color, such as logos or graphical text.

A few general notes on other media are appropriate. Other types of media such as Flash or sound files also slow down a page. The first rule is always the same, consider whether they are absolutely necessary. If you are choosing to build the site entirely in Flash, then make sure the individual sections and elements are as well compressed as possible. In the case of music, I will admit to personal bias here and paraphrase a brilliant old saying, “Websites should be seen and not heard.” Simply, music playing in the background will not “enhance” any browsing experience.

Text and Code

The most weight to be trimmed on a page will come from graphical and media elements, but it is possible to shed a few extra bytes by looking at the text and code of a web page. In terms of actual text content, there may not be much to do here. A page’s content is key not only to the user’s understanding but also search engine ranking. Removing or better organizing content is only necessary in extreme situations, where more than page weight is an issue. An example might be a long, text heavy web page requiring a lengthy vertical scrolling to finish. Such a page is common on “infomercial” sites, and violates basic design tenants beyond those related to page weight.

Code is a different story. A website’s code can be made more efficient in a variety of fashions. First, via the use of CSS, all style elements of a web page can now be called via an external file. This same file can be called on all a site’s pages, providing for a uniform look and feel. Not only is this more efficient; it is also the official recommendation from the W3C. The same may be said of XHTML and the abandonment of “table” based layout. Tables, though effective for layout, produce more code than equivalent XHTML layouts using “div” tags. Where a minimum of 3 tags are required to create a “box” with content in a table, only 1 is needed using divisions. Using XHTML and CSS in combination can significantly reduce the amount of “on page” code required by a web page. A final, relatively insignificant trick is the removal of all “white space” from your code. Browsers don’t require it; it is primarily so authors can readily read and interpret the code. The savings are minimal at best, but for sites that receive an extreme amount of traffic, even a few saved bytes will add up over time.

Conclusions

Target images and media files first when seeking to reduce the weight of a page. They are the largest components of overall page weight and simply removing them can significantly reduce total weight. The images that remain should be optimally compressed into a format appropriate for their type, photos or graphics. Avoid huge blocks of text that cause unnecessary vertical scrolling. Organize the site more efficiently to spread the information across multiple pages. Adopt XHTML and CSS to reduce the size of the on-page code, and call the CSS externally. These tips should help reduce the size of your pages and speed their delivery to your viewers.