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Website Help If you have a Website or Blog that either you or a Company you hired did not complete, we are here to help you finish that important Website or Blog that will give you the Online exposure you needed. Rates are very competitive and I have many examples of both Blogger and Wordpress Ranked Websites I have built for you to evaluate. Every Website or Blog is custom done for your Geographic location and Business or Opportunity, Full SEO/SEM Programs are available. These are also very competitively priced and come with a Money Back Guarantee based on Rankings and Performance as agreed when starting Project. This Blogger is one of ten that I have built in last Month so I build more in Month than some Companies build in a Quarter. The most important thing is the experience for the User not how you feel about the Website, user experience is more a factor of success or failure whether you are on Page One of Google or not. A Brick and Mortar Business with established name and clientele will always do better Online than a unknown Business even if it is ranked way higher than the established company. When someone looks at your Website you have to get their attention and keep it until you made a Customer, that is the challenge, we are here to help Building Ranked Websites and Blogs since 1994 Satisfaction is always Guaranteed Page One Google Rankings Renton Contact BM Rye bm1965@gmail.com helpmewithmywebsites.wordpress.com
Learn How to Create Trustworthy Landing Pages and Automatically Get More Leads
by Fahad Muhammad in Landing Pages, Lead Generation
Trust is a highly coveted word in the digital marketing world.
In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that in marketing, trust sells. Have a swanky new product that vaporizes dust bunnies into thin air? (I know, cool right?) However, if you don’t have a trustworthy landing page to promote it with, you can kiss your leads goodbye.
Because the fact is, when it comes down to online marketing (where your products aren’t physically for show) it’s hard to sell anything if the visitor doesn’t trust you.
Your Visitors Have Short Attention Spans, Make the Most of Them
According to The Guardian, “A one second delay in page load time can result in 11% fewer page views, 16% decreased customer satisfaction, and 7% lost conversions.”
Want your visitors to stick around long enough on your landing page for your message to sink in? Create pages that not only load faster but exude trustworthiness and loyalty with every element.
Don’t know how to do that? This post is going to change all that, not only are we going to discuss how you can create trustworthy landing pages, but, we’ll show you examples of pages that are doing it right.
Let’s begin.
Add Relevant Testimonials and Customer Reviews
Nothing can sell a product better than a loyal customer whose singing praises about your amazing product. This is because customers often think alike, which is why they trust each other’s opinion.
Including true testimonials on your page really helps with your conversions, you do need to make sure however that the testimonials are honest and descriptive, just including a customer quote saying “Great Service” won’t persuade your visitors.
Try adding testimonials that tell an inspiring customer story to get the most clicks on your CTA button.
Not only does it say that the app is helpful, but it tells all potential customers how Mr. Elliot used the product to his advantage.
The testimonial has more power if it is written by someone well known in your industry. Tim Feriss’ testimonial on the Highrise page has the right effect on visitors.
Maintain Message Consistency throughout your Landing Page
Don’t confuse people. Use similar language and consistency in your approach as you guide them from an ad to your landing page. Too many brands focus on creating the perfect ad, and then completely fail to follow it up with a landing page to match.
From your ad to your landing page, your messaging should be perfectly matched. Don’t make your visitors wonder why they came on your landing page, show them the value you add right away and maintain this message starting from your headline all the way down to your CTA button.
Use Images of “Real” People
Amy Cuddy in her TED talk on body language explains that body language affects how others see us.
Want your visitors to connect with you and turn into customers? Then include some photos of real people. If you’re a small business trying to make it big, try adding your photos on your landing page.
Highrise saw 102.5% increase in conversions when they added an image of a real person rather than an image explaining the service.
Wistia does a wonderful job with their About Us page titled, “Wistia Class Photos”. I know this is not a landing page. However, I just loved the creativity- hence the reference.
Put up some Customer Badges
Showcasing the logos of notable companies who happen to be your customers is a brilliant and simple way to borrow credibility. A visitor who is on the brink of making a decision can be convinced into clicking the CTA button after he recognizes a famous company logo on your landing page.
Visitors are quick to judge your landing page, and when they see that someone influential has already judged you, they are quicker to climb on the bandwagon because they start seeing you as someone they can trust.
Econsultancy found that professional looking pages and the presence of popular customer badges also have an effect on online purchases.
Doesn’t a halo appear on Stripe’s landing page after you see the logos of popular companies like Kickstarter, Twitter, Pinterest, lyft and Shopify on it?
Trust seals also add credibility on your landing page.
For e-commerce businesses, trust seals are especially important for attracting leads. A survey by Econsultancy showed that the effectiveness of trust seals depended on customer recognition of the symbols. The study tested 20 different trust logos, and the results revealed the three most recognizable logos were that of Paypal, Verisign, and McAfee.
Refrain From Using Jargon
Nothing kills the mood on a landing page like jargon. One form of jargon shows up in the form of abbreviations. Look at the 53 landing page as an example.
What’s MIX?
If your visitors don’t know the meaning of a word on your landing page, you better believe that they won’t stick around on the page to find out.
Jargon also refers to clichéd words like “revolutionary” and “cutting edge.” These are the kind of words that marketers love to use because it makes them feel special, and they try to impress visitors with the wordplay, but in reality, it doesn’t mean anything.
The problem is that when everyone in your niche is claiming to be one-of-a-kind and cutting edge on their landing pages, that just means no one is. Cut the fluff.
Be simple and straightforward with your landing page. Tell your visitors exactly what they’ll get from your landing page, like Flow does with their page.
Only when your visitors trust your landing page will they trust your product/service and click the CTA button. It’s as simple as that.
Create simple landing pages that speak to your visitors, not at them. Make sure that your CTA button offers the same thing that your headline promised, and you’ll be good on leads.
If you fail to put these trust honing strategies to work on your landing page, you’ll be left in the dark as far as conversions are concerned.
Excited to get to work on creating your first trustworthy landing page? Create your first landing page for free here. Still confused about adding trust and loyalty on your landing pages? Please leave your questions in the comments below.
Designing Your Own Website
Many tutorials will tell you that the first place you should start is by getting web hosting or some other place to put your web pages. And while this is an important step, you don’t have to do it first. In fact, for many people, putting the site up on a host is the last thing they do once the design is to their liking.
I recommend, if you are going to design a new website from scratch, the first thing you should do is determine what editor you will use.
While some people just rely on price, there are a lot of different free editors out there, so it’s a good idea to think about what you want from an editor. Think about things like:
Do you want to learn or already know HTML? While a text editor can very flexible for some people, if you don’t know HTML then a WYSIWYG editor might be a better solution. You can design a wonderful website with either.
Do you want to sell things from your website? If you do, you will need to learn more about ecommerce and how to accept payment from your customers. Plus, some editors are better suited to ecommerce sites than others.
Do you plan on writing a blog? Blogs are much easier when you use software to build them, and some editors have blog support built in.
Is this the only website you plan on making? If you’re not planning on becoming a professional web designer, then there is no need to spend a lot of money on a professional editor. And like I said above, there are many free web editors that offer lots of professional features.
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Once You Have an Editor - Start Designing Your Website
But I don’t mean in the editor or in HTML. While we will get to learning HTML, when you’re working on designing a website, you should work with your imagination first. Planning a good website design will ensure that it really is good.
Market and promote my site to get new visitors to it.
Designing a Website is More than HTML
Once you think you know what your site should look like, you can start writing HTML. But remember that the best websites use more than just HTML. As I mention above, they use CSS, JavaScript, PHP, CGI, and lots of other things to keep it looking good. But if you take your time, you can build a website that you would be proud of.
It has become true that if you're in business you need a website. And yet many small businesses are reluctant to get online because of the time or expense they believe is required. This list of requirements will help you get the best website you can without spending a lot of money or time.
Web Hosting
Deciding where you're going to put your website doesn't have to be your first step, but it should be on the top of your list. This location is called Web hosting and there are lots of options to choose from. If you've decided to hire a Web designer to work on your site, he or she might have a preference as to what host you should use. Talk to them to see if they have suggestions.
The Hottest Website Testing Tool on the Planet. Test it out!
Domain Name
A domain name is the address where your website will be found on the Web. The best domain name is one that uses the company's name in the URL. But sometimes that can be hard to get, if you haven't already registered it. If you can't get your company name, then consider something catchy or memorable that your customers can associate with you. Remember that it should be something that you like and can live with for a long time, as there's a possibility that people will start remembering your domain name before they remember your real company name.
Don't neglect the planning. Even if you're going to hire a professional Web designer to build your site, you should have an idea of what you want on it and how it should look. And don't be afraid to build it on your own. The key to doing it yourself is to start small. Build just a few pages at first, and then add to your site as you grow more comfortable building Web pages.
Design Your Own Free Website! Free Drag & Drop Website Builder
Marketing and Promotion
Once you've built your site and it's live, you want people to come visit it, but this can be the hardest part of the process. Marketing your site is almost more important than building it. You should plan on doing both passive marketing like search engine optimization and active marketing like buying ads for your site.
In order to know how well your site is doing you need to set up analytics to track thepageviews and visitors. Then, once you've started tracking them, you can see how they are changing over time, and track changes you make to your site or advertising campaigns you run to see how effective they are.
Simple search engine optimisation & Convenient. Test now for free!
Maintain Your Site
The best sites on the Web change frequently and are kept up-to-date. If you're planning a website for your business you should factor in the cost of having at least one person who adds new content at least weekly and fixes problems as they are found.
It has become true that if you're in business you need a website. And yet many small businesses are reluctant to get online because of the time or expense they believe is required. This list of requirements will help you get the best website you can without spending a lot of money or time.
Web Hosting
Deciding where you're going to put your website doesn't have to be your first step, but it should be on the top of your list. This location is called Web hosting and there are lots of options to choose from. If you've decided to hire a Web designer to work on your site, he or she might have a preference as to what host you should use. Talk to them to see if they have suggestions.
The Hottest Website Testing Tool on the Planet. Test it out!
Domain Name
A domain name is the address where your website will be found on the Web. The best domain name is one that uses the company's name in the URL. But sometimes that can be hard to get, if you haven't already registered it. If you can't get your company name, then consider something catchy or memorable that your customers can associate with you. Remember that it should be something that you like and can live with for a long time, as there's a possibility that people will start remembering your domain name before they remember your real company name.
Don't neglect the planning. Even if you're going to hire a professional Web designer to build your site, you should have an idea of what you want on it and how it should look. And don't be afraid to build it on your own. The key to doing it yourself is to start small. Build just a few pages at first, and then add to your site as you grow more comfortable building Web pages.
Design Your Own Free Website! Free Drag & Drop Website Builder
Marketing and Promotion
Once you've built your site and it's live, you want people to come visit it, but this can be the hardest part of the process. Marketing your site is almost more important than building it. You should plan on doing both passive marketing like search engine optimization and active marketing like buying ads for your site.
In order to know how well your site is doing you need to set up analytics to track thepageviews and visitors. Then, once you've started tracking them, you can see how they are changing over time, and track changes you make to your site or advertising campaigns you run to see how effective they are.
Simple search engine optimisation & Convenient. Test now for free!
Maintain Your Site
The best sites on the Web change frequently and are kept up-to-date. If you're planning a website for your business you should factor in the cost of having at least one person who adds new content at least weekly and fixes problems as they are found.
It has become true that if you're in business you need a website. And yet many small businesses are reluctant to get online because of the time or expense they believe is required. This list of requirements will help you get the best website you can without spending a lot of money or time.
Web Hosting
Deciding where you're going to put your website doesn't have to be your first step, but it should be on the top of your list. This location is called Web hosting and there are lots of options to choose from. If you've decided to hire a Web designer to work on your site, he or she might have a preference as to what host you should use. Talk to them to see if they have suggestions.
The Hottest Website Testing Tool on the Planet. Test it out!
Domain Name
A domain name is the address where your website will be found on the Web. The best domain name is one that uses the company's name in the URL. But sometimes that can be hard to get, if you haven't already registered it. If you can't get your company name, then consider something catchy or memorable that your customers can associate with you. Remember that it should be something that you like and can live with for a long time, as there's a possibility that people will start remembering your domain name before they remember your real company name.
Don't neglect the planning. Even if you're going to hire a professional Web designer to build your site, you should have an idea of what you want on it and how it should look. And don't be afraid to build it on your own. The key to doing it yourself is to start small. Build just a few pages at first, and then add to your site as you grow more comfortable building Web pages.
Design Your Own Free Website! Free Drag & Drop Website Builder
Marketing and Promotion
Once you've built your site and it's live, you want people to come visit it, but this can be the hardest part of the process. Marketing your site is almost more important than building it. You should plan on doing both passive marketing like search engine optimization and active marketing like buying ads for your site.
In order to know how well your site is doing you need to set up analytics to track thepageviews and visitors. Then, once you've started tracking them, you can see how they are changing over time, and track changes you make to your site or advertising campaigns you run to see how effective they are.
Simple search engine optimisation & Convenient. Test now for free!
Maintain Your Site
The best sites on the Web change frequently and are kept up-to-date. If you're planning a website for your business you should factor in the cost of having at least one person who adds new content at least weekly and fixes problems as they are found.
In the runup to tomorrow's talk at Generate New York, Irene Pereyra shares 10 tips to help you deliver amazing user experience.
These days, building websites or applications that attract andretain customers has become somewhat of a science.
For people who aren't well versed in the digital space, I often compare the work that I do as a UX designer to an architect. Like the architect who builds your home, my UX team builds a comprehensive blueprint, which outlines every single detail of the site's features and functionality.
But it's not a one-shot deal. Getting to an intuitive and engaging user interaction requires many steps. Here are my top 10 tips to help you deliver an amazing interactive experience for your users.
01. Design for the user, really
Back when online interaction was still in its infancy, and not much thought had been given to whom we were designing for, users were all too willing to spend their time learning the interaction required to complete tasks on websites. If users were confused, people often assumed they just weren't tech savvy or well-informed on how to navigate the internet.
As more and more websites, mobile devices and tablets started popping up; users weren't as willing or patient to "learn" on their own. Nowadays, you'll see more users becoming frustrated and even angry when they feel a product, application or website is substandard - and rightfully so.
DON'T MISS THIS
It's tempting to design with your own preferences and tastes in mind. But that won't help users complete tasks on the site if they have a whole different set of preferences and needs. Think about what users want to do and help them complete those tasks in the easiest and most intuitive way possible.
Are they browsing? Searching? Gaming? Watching video? Trying to complete a task? Looking for specific content? It's the UX team's job to look at the entire experience holistically and make sure that users' needs are always met.
It's this "design for the user" strategy that shaped every decision we made on Civil War 150. The biggest challenge with this project was the huge amount of Civil War related facts and statistics.
To make it fun and relatable, we used colorful infographics to guide users through the top 150 Civil War related topics including Who They Were, Weapons of War, How They Died, 5 Deadliest Battles, Paying for the War and West Point Warriors. By giving users what they want, learning about the Civil War becomes richly engaging, informative and fun experience for hardcore Civil War fanatics and 7th grade history students alike.
02. Do your homework
Listen and absorb. The more conversations you have with clients, the better informed you'll be. Dive deep into every piece of documentation, research their field, examine all content with a fine-tooth comb, understand the client's goals, document thoroughly all of the client's wishes (no matter how small) and talk to as many people across as many departments as possible. Only then will you have the most complete and accurate picture and be prepared to move to the next phase of the project.
Another crucial part of listening comes from doing a thorough analysis of what competitors are doing in the same space. Are there any innovators that you can learn from? Have they made any mistakes you want to avoid? Is there one universal component that ties all of them together? Were there any missed opportunities? Use the answers to these questions as inspiration in your own project.
The types of sites you may look at during this analysis phase can vary dramatically. You could even look at sites that sell cat food as points of reference when designing an application for audio equipment. It's still relative and can be helpful because the user behaviour could very well be the same for cat food sites and audio equipment sites. Either way, you can learn valuable lessons from UX best practices across completely different industries and form factors.
03. Be an advocate for the user
We often think of the user as our client, though it's not entirely true. In any project, there are sets of business objectives that need to be met and it's the UX designer's responsibility to meet those objectives, while at the same time informing the client about the user's needs. That's why the greatest digital projects are often those where there is a perfect equilibrium between the client's objectives and the user's needs. Sit on that fence, and balance well.
04. Forget about Nancy, think user types
Personas are vital when it comes to structuring the content. Look at all the content holistically and think about what people are trying to accomplish. Doing this helps prioritise the content and allows the site to be structured around the user's goals. But traditional personas – "Nancy, who is 28-35 years old, drives an economy car, has a four-year-old PC she primarily uses for email, earns between $30K-$50K a year and wants to comparison shop for a cheap airfare to visit her mother in Florida" - won't offer much insight into the user's actual behaviour.
Instead, group basic User Types into categories according to what they want to do on the site such as 'browsing', 'comparison shopping', 'killing time', 'looking for specific content'. These groupings will provide you with much more useful insights about why users come to sites or applications, the context of use (where and how), what content they're seeking and how much time they have.
In turn, you'll be better equipped to design the website or application around their behaviour patterns, thus making their fictional names, ages, professions and income levels irrelevant.
05. Less really is more
You may think this is obvious and doesn't need further explanation. But most sites and applications still manage to get it wrong. The key is to cut down tasks required by users to the bare minimum. I can't stress this enough. Get rid of all that extra clutter that doesn't add value, or worse, distracts and confuses the user.
Know exactly how you want users to travel through your site or application and then guide the user as if you were holding their hand through the entire process. Again, users want things to be as simple, worry-free and fast as possible. If they can see what's coming next before even clicking on something, they'll be happy users.
To give you an example of using the 'less is more' strategy, we worked together with Google on a project called 20 Things I Learned About the Web and Browsers. The challenge was to take the tactile experience of reading a book and reinvent it for online users.
Using interactive features such as instant search, animated canvas page flips, enhanced canvas illustrations, offline mode, bookmarking and lights out mode, we made it simple, fun and informative for users to learn about the web and browsers. By focusing on what and how users wanted to travel through the website, learning about the web and browsers became enjoyable and informative for users.
06. Pretend you're working for Fisher Price
Our CEO David Martin has this saying - and it's really resonated for me. "All interaction should feel like Fisher Price." In other words, when you make things bulky and oversized (like most children's toys) and design digital experiences for 'fat fingers', it will automatically be easier to use. So how do we translate this to designing engaging and interactive user experiences?
Rather than using the standard input fields, radio buttons or checkboxes, try using big buttons, jumbo sliders and giant input fields. You'll see user engagement increase and bounce rates drop. Isn't that what all UX designers strive for?
Labeling is also extremely important. Whenever you ask users to provide information, try to use cheeky, simple, and to-the-point terminology so that it will feel less like a hassle. The result will be that users will feel more emotionally compelled to complete the process. And that could mean a boost in signups, web traffic, online sales and ROI.
When a 9.0 earthquake struck Japan, earthquake relief efforts and support poured in from around the world. Working with Google, we created a platform for the global community to share their Messages for Japan. Taking a cue from Fisher Price, the site featured big buttons to group messages into categories of 'Love' and 'Hope', as well as giant input fields asking users to 'Write Your Message' and 'Make a Donation'.
07. Take cues from tablets
Because you're already limited by the amount of real estate on tablets, the need to simplify interactions is even greater. Ask yourself if your design would work on a tablet. If the answer is yes, you already have the two basic building blocks in place for a strong user experience: clear hierarchy and intuitive way finding.
Adding placeholders for copy (lorem ipsum) next to some grey boxes underneath a row of navigation links does not constitute design. Visual hierarchy, content grouping, spacing, positioning and size are all things that should be solved in wireframes before a visual designer even sets eyes on it. If in your wireframes you're working within the actual site or application width, and 12px text in your template is actually 12px in design, you're on track.
09. Collaborate with all departments
User experience design alone is not enough to make great work and it will surely not provide all the answers. Listen, collaborate and become the liaison between the client, the user and the rest of your internal team. Only then can you create the best possible experience for the user while still meeting all business objectives.
Remember, you're not alone. UX designers, visual designers and interactive developers all have a hand in making a project a success - it truly is a collaborative and multi-disciplinary effort. When it's a shared passion and everybody pitches in with their level of expertise and voices their opinions, magic happens.
10. Don't grade your own homework
The chance of you hitting the bulls eye with your first shot is very slim so be prepared to design iteratively as you gather more information about the performance of your site or application. One of the things that I am adamant about is that you should only do quantitative analysis on your own work. Tracking the performance and understanding where people are dropping off is extremely important and should be done in-house. But a third party should always conduct the qualitative user data analysis so you can truly have an objective testing environment. Doing this in-house is much like grading your own homework and won't give you the depth of truth and insight that you're looking for. If you want real objective answers, let someone else do the user testing and take those learnings into your next iteration.
Elegant Themes has a high quality email marketing strategy
You should have methods in place to increase the number of people that have opted into your mailing list. When you have done this you can email them with information that they will be interested in such as new products or services, discounts or information that is related to your website and which helps them.
An example of a high quality email marketing strategy is fromElegant Themes who create and sell Wordpress themes and plugins. They send an email out every day to their mailing list providing great information on subjects they know their audience are interested in such as how to improve a website and how to use it to help a business.
02. Videos
Videos are a great way of giving a visual insight into you and your business or project. Video platforms are also being accessed from more and more places these days with them commonly being used on devices such as games consoles, living room media players and smart TVs.
Videos online can be distributed in a number of different ways such as the more traditional platforms like YouTube and Vimeo and the short video sharing apps such as Vine as well as newer platforms like Periscope and Meerkat which are specifically designed for live video streaming.
03. Podcasts
Gimlet uses podcasts as a promotional tool
These have taken a back seat to video over the past five to ten years but seem to be making a come back with many companies such as Gimlet Media and Slack making a big effort to promote their companies using podcasts.
A major benefit to using this platform to raise awareness is that people do not have to sit in one place when listening like they do when watching a video. This means that the thousands of people on trains, walking to work or doing anything that requires a little concentration can still get to know you and your project.
04. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
By making sure that your website is optimised for search engines you can, over the long term, increase the amount of traffic that it receives from people that are interested in the content on there.
The first step in making your website optimised for relevant words is to perform research. This can be done via Google's Keyword Planner tool within Google Adwords. You can sign up for an account for free and this tool will give you approximate monthly search numbers for words that you type in.
05. Adwords
Performing the SEO research mentioned above will also benefit any Google Adwords campaign that you run. A major benefit of Google Adwords marketing over SEO is that it provides you with instant traffic although the cost per click (CPC) reflects this.
Obtaining instant traffic in this way is a great method, assuming that you have set-up website traffic tools such as Google Analytics properly, for analysing how people use your website and what exactly they are interested in.
06. Twitter
Followerwonk is a useful tool to aid Twitter marketing
You can find people that may be interested in your website and so increase the traffic levels by using Twitter. There are tools out there, such as Followerwonk, to help search through Twitter profiles for words which are relevant to your website. Simply following people interested in your project will mean that a number of them visit your profile and will click on your website link if they are interested.
07. Paid Twitter advertising
It is becoming more frequently used but Twitter advertising is still a platform that has more opportunities than some other traditional digital advertising platforms such as Google Adwords.
With Twitter advertising you can find people with relevant interests and place different kinds of advertisement in front of them. Adverts can use Twitter cards which are a smart way to do things such as allow people to sign up to your mailing list directly from Twitter with just their name as Twitter already has a user's email address.
08. Paid Facebook advertising
Facebook has so much information on people that advertising on this platform can enable you to quickly get your business or project in front of them to increase your website's traffic levels.
With Facebook advertising you can reach relevant people using a scarily high amount of criteria such as country, region, postcode, age, gender, interest and language. You can also target people behaving in a way that means that they are relevant to your website for example they may be looking to buy a house and, if so, then you can place your advertisement in front of them.
09. Email your business contacts about your website
You may already have a list of contacts that you email regularly about various things and telling them about your website is a great way to increase the level of traffic. Being subtle is certainly the way to go so make sure that you send them a direct link only if you think that there is a great reason for them to visit. This may be because you have written a new blog post that they will benefit from or there may be a new offering on there.
10. Networking in person
Going to any kind of event where there are people who may be interested in your website will certainly increase the amount of traffic it receives. If you receive a person's contact details after meeting them a great way to encourage them to visit your website is to send them a polite email saying that it was nice to meet and make sure that your email signature includes a link to your website.
I hope that has given you some useful information on how you can increase your website's traffic levels and that you feel inspired to come up with some great ideas!
James Yorke is a freelance digital marketer under the name ofBecome Known providing, amongst other things, SEO and Google Analytics audits and websites.
Designing an effective web site requires more than just gathering relevant information and posting it on the web. Like a good paper or research presentation, a quality web project demands as much attention to the selection, organization, and presentation of material as to the underlying research itself. You should strive, above all, to be both clear and engaging in every aspect of site design. Without the first, you will quickly lose your audience. Without the second, you'll never catch their attention in the first place.
Here are some concrete suggestions for making your site a winner:
Before you begin:
Consider your audience and your goals. You should have a clear sense of who will be using your site (mostly college undergraduates) and what kind of experience you are hoping to provide. What exactly are you trying to accomplish here? Why is this important?
Plan your site on paper first. You can draw a "family tree" of pages with arrows indicating links. Or you can make a hierarchical outline. Either way, it is essential to organize your information and lay out the architecture of your site before attempting to implement your vision.
Site Layout:
Strive for consistency. You want your project to have an identity, so all the pages in your project should have a common feel: there should be consistency among backgrounds, color schemes, navigational tools, and tone of voice. This is especially important if you are dividing up your site's pages among several team members. Otherwise, your project will seem like two or three separate projects lumped together, rather than a single, unified whole.
Provide a rich set of links within your site. Ideally, there should be multiple ways for your user to navigate your pages. You should consider including a prominent 'home' link or icon on each page, a menu or table of contents, and highlighted links within textual material to related information elsewhere on the site. Feel free, of course, also to provide links to other pages within ECE or elsewhere on the web.
Don't hide important information. Users don't like to click too many times to find the information they want -- if information is particularly important, make it accessible up front. On any given page, remember that as with a newspaper, the top left corner is the most prominent. See the National Geographic Website for a good example.
The web medium:
Provide opportunities for interaction. How is your site any different from a traditional print document? How can you involve the reader in ways that non-digitized texts usually cannot? Interactivity can be a compelling, innovative means of engaging your reader and creating experiences that cannot be replicated in other media. Good examples are the "Make Your Way as an 18th-Century Woman" site on ECE and the site for the Louvre Museum in Paris
Avoid text-only pages. Ideally, a user should never encounter an entire screen full of uninterrupted text in browsing your site. Again, take advantage of the web medium!
Don't sacrifice elegance for pizzazz. Just because you can make images fly across the screen does not mean you necessarily should. Every design element of your site (colors, images, animation) ought to correspond thematically with the content and goals of your project. See the Enigma site for a representative example.
Provide a link for every URL you mention in your site. If your bibliography or notes include a citation for another website, list the URL in full, but make it 'clickable' as well so that the user can go directly to the site in question.
The front door:
Give your site a descriptive title. Your title should convey the content of your site in a concise but engaging manner. Remember, the title is how your site will be identified on the ECE home pages. Ideally, it should pique the curiosity of users and prompt them to explore your project pages.
Include a brief introduction. This should be part of your site's home page, and should explain the scope and purpose of the site. Once users have noticed your title and followed a link to your site, they will expect quickly to find a further elaboration of your title, a brief paragraph or two describing what the site is all about and what makes it interesting. You've caught the user's eye with your title; the introduction is your chance to heighten their interest and persuade them to actually stick around and explore.
Make your site's home page as useful a starting point as possible. The viewer should be able to see at a glance what your site is about, how it is laid out, and what kinds of resources and features it includes. Ideally, all of this information (along with your site title and introduction) should be visible on a single fast-loading screen that requires a minimum of scrolling.
Accessibility:
Make sure your text is legible. Check the size, color, and font of all text within your site to confirm that it can be easily read. Be especially careful of dark or fancy backgrounds that make text hard to read.
Make sure your site is platform independent. Your site should be viewable on both Mac and Windows machines using either of the most commonly available browsers, Netscape and Explorer.
Consider the needs of your viewers. Think about the bandwidth your site will require. Keep in mind that not all users will have the luxury of an ethernet connection. Minimize the memory requirements of your site by compressing images and other large files. And make sure all your images have ALT-TEXT behind them. This makes the site accessible both to low-vision users and users with slow modems who have turned the images off.
The end game:
Thoroughly test your site. Ask a friend to sit down and explore your site. Ask them to think out loud, and watch them navigate the site. Do they get lost? Do they have trouble finding links? Do they have trouble understanding your labels? Do they understand your prose? Ideally, you should elicit and incorporate feedback about your site in the course of developing it as well as when its nearing completion. Be sure to test your site both of the most commonly used browsers, Netscape and Internet Explorer.
Proofread carefully! Check carefully for spelling and grammatical errors before posting your written materials to the web.
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