The
most important aspect of your website. What
do you want to say to the visitor and how do
you want to say it?
Text,
pictures, audio, video, visitor interactivity...
all of these elements can be used to convey
your message or showcase your products but
they must be used wisely.
Text
- Your page copy should be concise and understandable.
Your design should be such that the text
is easily viewed against your background.
Don't allow your copy to run too far down
the page. People will get tired of scrolling.
This also makes for larger file size. Instead,
continue your copy on another page (click
HERE for more on website design).
Photos
- You should definitely add photos, especially
if you are selling a product. People like
pictures but too many
large pictures per page can cause a slow
load time. For larger photos it's best
to create that
link to larger versions. This way the visitor
can choose which large pictures they wish
to view (click HERE for
more on using photos).
Audio/Video
- The ability to audio
and video makes it very suitable for the
web, however I would not recommend having
any audio or video play automatically. It's
usually best to let the visitor decide if
they wish to view or listen to multimedia.
There are exceptions to the rule. If your
band has a website it would be acceptable
to have a short audio clip play when someone
enters the site. Always use formats that
are standard to the web such as or
.
Don't ask your visitors to download special
software to access your multimedia files (click HERE for
more on audio/video).
Free
content feeds - There are hundreds of free
and paid content feeds that can be integrated
into your website. A couple of examples from
this site are the News
Headlines and
Featured
Articles (right side on homepage). Once
we set the code we never have to make any
changes. The content is updated automatically.
These features are designed to keep visitors
on the site longer and have them return
more often. A Google search of "free website
content" will start you on your way to discovering
what is available to enhance your website.
