You may have noticed that I said web­site in the title, but what I mean by this is what­ever form of pres­ence you are using for your online busi­ness. This is extremely impor­tant and will instantly tell your vis­i­tor if you are a pro­fes­sional pres­ence or an ama­teur giv­ing web devel­op­ment a try. There are two dif­fer­ent things you should be con­sid­er­ing when alter­ing or cre­at­ing your pres­ences look which are the lay­out and design. These two things are inter­twined yet are dif­fer­ent aspects of your site. Sim­ply put the lay­out of your site is where you place the dif­fer­ent struc­tures such as con­tent, mon­e­ti­za­tion links, sub­scrip­tion links, and nav­i­ga­tion. The design of the site is the style of let­ters you use, the color scheme, and pictures.

Both of these are incred­i­bly impor­tant to your vis­i­tor sat­is­fac­tion and should be thought about dur­ing cre­ation. One thing I have been notic­ing more and more is the com­plic­ity of a web­sites look. These sites add tons of dif­fer­ent col­ors, pic­tures, sec­tions, and other non needed things. Per­haps this is work­ing for your pres­ence, but a more likely sce­nario is you are over­whelm­ing your vis­i­tors by the amount of infor­ma­tion and visu­als you dis­play. One thing that has increased con­ver­sion and decreased bounce rate for me is keep­ing the design and lay­out sim­ple. I want the vis­i­tor to see exactly what my site is about within the first ten sec­onds of them reach­ing the pres­ence and have no issues with find­ing their way around my presence.

I will not tell you what col­ors you should be using or exactly where you should have your con­tent, nav­i­ga­tion, or mon­e­ti­za­tion links. One thing you should do is at the top of your pres­ence have the name of your pres­ence and an actual descrip­tion of what your pres­ence is good for. This is the place where you tell your vis­i­tors exactly why they need your site in two sen­tences or less. Then right under the descrip­tion or in the side­bar (some­where easy to find) you should have a sim­ple nav­i­ga­tion. Your vis­i­tors will most likely be com­ing to see your con­tent so again make sure you have your con­tent eas­ily visible.

One of the most impor­tant things when cre­at­ing your pres­ence is know­ing what “the fold” is. This is what your vis­i­tors see when they hit your site with­out scrolling down. If they have to scroll down to see some­thing then it is above the fold. I rec­om­mend hav­ing your con­tent, nav­i­ga­tion, title, descrip­tion, and a mon­e­ti­za­tion link above the fold. This will give the major­ity of your vis­i­tors exactly what they need or are look­ing for with­out them hav­ing to look around. It is ok to have con­tent or links below the fold just be sure to have the most impor­tant parts of your site above the fold.

Some other use­ful arti­cles include how to find a niche and Reach­ing Your First Online Pay­day.

Tags: web design, web development, web layout, website development, website layout

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