Making a Good First Impression

A good web site should: visually represent who you are; quickly identity the why, who, what, where, when, and how; be easy to navigate and interact with the visitor; offer alternate methods of sending you information or contacting you; be accessible for search engines and other electronic devcies; properly coded images and links; be free of spelling, grammar, and punctuations errors; uses high contrasting colors; give the user the choice of what to visit, hear or see on your site; follow copyrights laws; and be interesting.

Making a good impression online is as important as making a good impression in person. It is sad that todays society quickly passes judgment on what they see. We all do it! We skip through the TV remote. We'll flip a magazine until something grabs our attention. Once something stands out from the rest, you'll notice it. So why not make sure you get noticed and seen in the best possible manner on the web.

I'm sure you've heard this expression: "You snooze you loose." The technology is moving so rapidly. It is offend difficult to keep up. Our kids and grand kids are growing up with cell phones, laptops and using blogs and Twitter to keep in touch. There are so many communication devices being used today. You want to ensure that your web site can be read by those devices. This means making your content accessible to for those devices.

Making a web site accessibile is not as difficult as you may think it is. It is simply ensuring your site is properly coded and that the meta tags are entered for the appropriate page elements such as images, links, and titles. This not only makes your content accessible to the visualy impaired visitors by letting their devices read the content they cannot see but also increases the search engine results.

This issue also highlights the benefits and pitfalls of either using pre-fabricated online templates, Content Management Systems (CMS), or the services of an experienced web developer to create a custom web site to meet your specifc needs.

The terminology section will explain a lot of the terms used to create web sites. If you're in the trade, you probably know them. They are provided for those who may want to know what they mean. It will help you in discussing your web needs if ever you need to talk to a web person.

Keep you site simple and give the visitor the choice of what to visit, hear or see on your site. Too often web sites are designed with video and sounds that the visitor may not want to hear or see. By simply programming the video to be in the "pause" mode and letting the user press the "play" and "stop" buttons, you've given them the choice to view it instead of forcing them to view it.

Main Navigational Buttons

Home | Introduction | Profile/About | Contact | Site Map are the main ones that should be part of your main navigational menu. It should also include the products or services you are presenting. Within those main sections, you can have as many sub-sections as you like. Avoid placing your main navigational buttons in different locations on different pages. They should appear the same way on each page. You also have to ensure that your links and buttons all work.

To me, your site should visually respresent you or the product you're promoting in the best possible light while ensuring it meets todays' ever so rapidly evolving technologies. It has to meet your target audiences expectations on more then one level. This includes providing a positive experience visiting your site by making your site easy to navigate. Luckily, they are guys like me around to help you. We may seem expensive at the start but worth every penney in the end. We'll save you time, frustration, and give your site a proper makover.