Enhancing Your Website

Once you’ve built your basic site and got the layout and the words right it’s time to think about how you can make it even better. Take a look at what you consider to be several good websites and ask yourself why you like them.

Are they:

• Informative and interesting?
• Easy to read?
• Quick to load?
• Up to date?

Graphics

It’s tempting to load pictures of your cat, grand mother and you as a child but do visitors really want to see all this and will it enhance your site? Graphics should be kept to a minimum and only be relevant to what you’re trying to promote. Graphics will slow the loading of a site down, so too many run the risk of losing the visitor.

Of course, if you’re retailing a product the potential purchaser will want to see it. So make sure the files are of a size that load quickly and easily. A trick clothes retailers use is to include a zoom feature for better representation of the product.

Use professional photographs − there’s nothing worse than a cheap looking picture with shadow or someone’s fingers in the background. If you can’t afford a professional photographer there are loads of photo libraries on the net, where you can purchase some excellent pictures at a reasonable price.

NEVER, EVER use clip art on your website. It looks amateur and unprofessional − need we say more…

Media Files

Audio and video files are a great idea if they’re relevant to what you’re promoting. For example a music or language learning site will benefit from sound and a travel site will benefit from video. Again, use these tools sparingly as they can be distracting if not appropriate and will loose a visitor if they’re slow to load.

Other Ideas

To make your website fun and interesting and to tempt the visitor to return you could include:

• A forum − people like to have their say
• Ideas that change regularly − recipe of the month, photograph of the week, things to do, games to play, hints and tips, special offers and promotions
• News and events − tell people if you’re in the news or going to exhibit at an event
• A ‘how to’ section − tempt people by sharing information

Include a bookmark facility so people hold on to your site.

Don’t forget to include a search facility and make sure it works well and recognises key words.

If your site is informative a good way to encourage visitors is to set up reciprocal links with other companies. Include a ‘useful website’ section that will enhance your business. The link can be the company’s logo, and in return they feature your address and logo on their site.

Remember, be fresh and inviting and your visitors will return!