Create Your Website's Look & Feel

Your website's look and feel are very important. Most successful web pages, especially in commercial sites, are developed using just a few basic styles. As people and companies build more site and pages, they find what works and what doesn't.  As the world wide web continues to develop, surfers expect to see certain things in certain places.

For instance, the navigation bar should either be on the left running vertically down the page, or on the top just under the banner and logo. There should be a footer at the bottom with copyright information, and sometimes, terms and conditions, and privacy links.

When your visitor sees things he's used to, and has seen before, he will find it easier to navigate your site. He will also be much more comfortable. Rather than spend his time trying to figure out your splashy design, he will be reading your content, which is what you wanted him to do in the first place.

For search engine access, you will need to have text links to the inside of your site. If your nav bar uses images to point to your interior links, you can put a small navigation bar just above the footer with text links to the same pages. that way the search engine bots can travel those text links to your interior pages.

Your background should be white, or at least a color or image that doesn't interfere with your readers, and does not give them eyestrain. Put graphics and flash presentations on your page in a way that adds to the content, and doesn't detract. Keep in mind that the content is what's most important, and that includes both your readers and the search engines. Make sure you have enough whitespace to separate sections.

Look at other sites that you find attractive and informative. See what they do to make their site attractive and flow well. Get ideas, but don't copy them. If you duplicate other peoples work, not only do you run afoul of the copyright laws, but you also will incur a penalty in the search engines, and never get a decent listing in them.

You can get some nice templates and graphics at www.boxedart.com. They have a large selection and only cost around $59.00 per year to join. If you own Microsoft Office, you have access to Microsoft's clip art. this is a huge library of various graphics that you can add to other images, and really make your site look professional.

For those of you who find this just too daunting, you can hire a graphics artist. I understand you can get one from India for just a few bucks an hour. Check out www.rentacoder.com, and forums.digitalpoint.com.

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