Golden Rules of Web
Design
-
Make the site easy to use
for your visitors
-
Optimise it for search
engines
-
Guide the visitor to fulfil
your objectives
These rules are easy to state but much
harder to fulfil in practice because to some extent they are in
mutual conflict.
Visitors want quick information but also
the ability to go into detail when they choose. Search engines
mainly index text when the human might get information quicker from
a picture. You, as the owner of the website, are anxious
to get the sale, or lead, that is your major site objective and are
not very interested in providing information that the visitor may
like but that does not directly lead to a sale.
Briefing your web
designer
The majority of web designers start from
a background in the graphic arts. So your page will look nice
but you need to ensure it fulfils the business goals. Start
from the web planning template
but, then, see here suggestions for your
design brief.
Optimising your website
You should include in the design brief a
requirement that all significant pages be optimised for search
engines. However this is a requirement that goes beyond pure design.
Whoever is writing the content is equally responsible for ensuring
the search engines get the 'right' content.
Here are the factors to be considered
for website optimisation.
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