|
Just think what you think when you go to a website for the first time. If it has an attractive, clean layout and can get to what you want you are happy.
To get people to buy off you they need to trust you, think you are professional in what you do and that your offering is attractive to them.
It is therefore very important to be professional in your design and content. There are 3 things to concentrate on
- Consistency - You should have a consistent layout, consistent design (font types, borders etc), consistent tone and consistent navigation.
- Colours - More on this another page but colours can make or break consistency, highlighting, your tone, and design. Remember your audience.
- Content - Don't have too much that it takes too long to load and then remember that the first few seconds will make or break a viewer's visit. The first few seconds should tell someone who you are what you do and why they shouldn't leave your site. Again remember your audience.
Your home page is what will provide the very first impression in most cases. This must be clean and navigation from this page must be straightforward. If people don't see a way past this page or don't think it is wrth investing their time after this page you will lose the viewer.
CAUTION!!!! If your site takes any more than 25-30 seconds to download people will not wait unless you are very lucky. Less is more. After the first page and it is really necessary you can warn people of a longer download time. However on the home page you must not put huge images or anything to slow down the site. This is why I do not think Macromedia Flash sites are good for the home page.
|