|
How Does Your Website Measure Up?
Does your website make a good first impression? Is the navigation intuitive? Is the content appropriate for your audience? You've had your website up and running for a while now but you've always had a nagging suspicion that your website is lacking effectiveness and you just can't put your finger on it. You've dabbled with colors, added/removed images re-written the text but it still feels as if everything just isn't working together. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a way to sort things out? Well now you do!
Find out if your website has power, energy and the right stuff to help your business succeed. You'll be able to find out if the navigation; advertising, optimization, imagery and look are combining to make your home page an effective tool. Each section has a number of questions that help define, in detail, all the important areas of a well designed website. Just run through the list starting at the top. When you're finished just click the "Total Score" button at the bottom.
Just use the simple Q and A form here: http://www.learn2design.net/login/secure/interface/eval.php to see if your website meets established design standards. Using this checklist form you can rate your website (or anyone's) to make sure you've got all the essentials covered effectively.
Now the hard part; you have to answer the questions honestly and objectively! I know, it's your baby; you've spent countless hours nursing it to stardom. But now is the time to make an honest assessment. (Pretend its someone else's website if that helps.)
The form should only take 5 to 10 minutes to complete and at the end there is a brief description of what your score means and what you can do to improve your site.
About The Author
Dan Karwoski has been teaching website design to college students since 1997 and has created quality work for MSNBC, Microsoft, Amazon, Atom Films and many others. Interested students can learn the basics of web design by registering at http://www.learn2design.net. Please email questions to info@learn2design.net.
Keep Them Coming Back - Update Your Site
If you are anything like me, your website is a reflection of yourself. It contains your thoughts and communications, exposed to the entire world at all times. Look at virtually any non-commercial web site and you will get a glimpse at the person behind the monitor.
Developing Your Winning Web Site Strategy
Your web site is the key to your success on the Internet. You can use your web site to build your brand, increase sales, generate more leads, slash costs, and much more. In fact, you probably have very specific goals that your web site is helping you to achieve for your company.
Digitalize It! : (Modification of images with tools such as Adobe CS and Corel)
Then it was a choice among crayons, paints and palettes for an artist and designer to create art. It was a box of crayons that make one happy designer during his early years of formation.
Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design
If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast. Successful integration of ads into your site can be highly profitable. Before I show you where to position ads, I want to mention a few important points about ads.
Choosing Your Web Design
We would all like to have the best looking website, that's a fact - but if we keep in mind that our main objective is to finally sell our product or service online, we'll realize that maybe design is not the most important factor when it comes to achieve this objective.
How To Set Up A Professional Website On Your Own Using Web Templates
To create professional websites is not an easy task by any means. There are many things that you got to take into consideration like easy navigation, strategic links, clean coding, professional layout, easy downloading, scanability, usability and so on. These are the elements that differentiate a professional website from a mediocre one. So in a way it's not designing the website that counts but how the website is designed.
Good Content Pays!
Traffic to a site can be a blessing or a curse. Visitors who find what they are looking for, are engaged in what the site offers, and/or come away with a positive impression become the site owner's best allies and customers. But lead a visitor to believe that they will find what they are looking for and then not provide on your promise and you will find yourself being stabbed in the back repeatedly by people you will never know. As discussed in another article, "What Are the Benefits of Good Design on the Web?" the task of the site owner is not simply to ask all the right questions and make sure the designer interprets the answers correctly. Just as challenging is the need for the correct content-content that is largely dictated by the answers to the same questions so important to good design: Who are the visitors? What are they looking for? What is their situation, are they rushed? Are they knowledgeable? Are they looking for opinions or facts? Are they the kind of prospect the site owner is looking for?
Building An Effective Furniture Sales Web Site
Web sites that feature products ? especially furniture or other large items ? require a careful balance of text and images to convey the value of each product.
Online Advertising: 10 Tricky Secrets To Keep Visitors Glued To Your Website And Increase Sales
It is common sense.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin. Imagine cutting it in half with a knife. Now pick up the one lemon half and bring it up to your mouth and suck on the juices.
Website Design For Small Businesses
There are many different website design companies, offering different facilities such as flash design, however what should a small business look for when seeking an internet prescence?
Choosing A Color Scheme
When you begin the design of your Web site, one of the first things you need to do is decide on a color scheme. Although choosing colors seems like a relatively easy proposition, it's not easy at all. In fact, it's hard.
Don?t Put Your Slogan in the Title Tag - Optimize Your Web Pages
Don't just put your slogan in the title tag when you formulate the copy of your website. The formulation of the title tag is the most important single aspect when you fine-tune your website:
No Matr How Goud The Infomation...
Typos, misspellings, hideous grammar, exclamation overkill and run-on sentences all undermine a Web site's message. Your reader will have to work too hard, and you won't have that reader long.
Are You Driving Away Potential Customers?
When a prospect lands on your website will he or she understand what you are presenting? Do your ordering/sign up instructions make sense? Can prospects easily find the information they are searching for? If you don't know the answers to these questions you may be driving away potential customers.
How Important is Content to a Successful Website
Content is the most important part of any website.
Creating the Perfect Website - A beginners Guide
Are you looking to create the perfect website? A complete novice when it comes to HTML, CGI, FTP and all the other associated pieces that make up the website puzzle, then this article is definitely for you.
What Is Your Websites Most Wanted Response?
You spend time and money promoting your website; but what do you want to achieve (apart from more page views)? Is it more sales of Blue Widgets? Is it more subscribers on your mailing list? To be exact, what is your site's Most Wanted Response?
7 Ways of Building Customers Trust With Your Web Site
When I purchase something from a web site I first check who is behind this site. If there is no contact information or anything about the owner of the site or his/her company I move on.
Is Your Website Color As Inviting as Your Home? Does Color Really Matter?
We've all read the countless publications about effective web site design, outstanding written content and the never ending need for search engine optimization. But often the importance of color for a web site is overlooked. Yet it is a proven fact that physical changes take place when individuals are exposed to certain colors. Because colors have the power to stimulate, excite, or even depress, specific color combinations can possibly work to your advantage or to your detriment.