DO make your website easy to navigate. Use tabs on all of your pages and link them together. Have a link back to the homepage on each page of your site. Check periodically to be sure all of your links work. Do not make your visitors search all around your site to find what they want. If you have a large site you need a site map in case your visitors get lost.
DO use short text boxes with scroll bars to make reading your content easier. Try not to make your content too long. Do not run on and on as readers on the internet have short attention spans and will click on if your content is boring.
DON’T just throw text boxes, images and videos up on your page and hope for the best. The website builder makes it easy to place different elements by dropping and dragging. Remember what your focus area is and place your most important content near the top of the screen, and where to place different areas for the most impact. Use the Law of Thirds: do not cut your page in half but use the top third for the title and navigation bars and the bottom third for the meat of your page.
DO use sans serif fonts. These are the easiest to read and easy on your visitors eyes. Do not have many different fonts of different sizes on your website. Do not use fancy fonts that are hard to read. These work for titles and a few subtitles, but stick with simple fonts and your site will look professional and clean.
DO think about the colors you use. Try out different palettes to see which one works best for your free website. Understanding how colors work together and how they make people feel can help you to choose a pleasing color scheme. Do not use too many colors or have too many contrasting colors. This can make your site look messy and unprofessional. Research the different effects colors have on people and use this knowledge to your benefit.
DON’T go crazy filling in keywords. Your keywords should make up no more than 3 % of your total page content. Search engines read your pages like a human and keyword stuffing does nothing for your SEO. Do not copy and paste off of other websites. This is not an ethical practice and will get your website flagged as duplicate content and kill your website’s SEO.
DO get to the point. Visitors should be able to tell what you are focusing on within the first few seconds of arriving on your page. Do not make your visitors read through hundreds of words of text or have to move to the next page to see what you are offering. This is a sure way to make people leave your site and move on to the next one.
Do keep your contact forms short and sweet. All you really need is their name, address and email. Do not ask too many questions or people will be uncomfortable and wonder what you are up to. Remember, simple is better for contact forms. You can gather other information later after you have proven that you can be trusted.
DON’T overuse images. There is a fine line between an artfully created flash website and one that is distracting or overshadowed by images. Strike a balance between images and text. This includes videos and special effects. While a flash website builder gives you several options to add effects to the elements of your pages, resist the urge to make each text box and image have starts shooting out of it or changing colors each time the mouse goes over them.
You want your new website to look professional and be easy for your visitors to use. Remember these dos and don’ts and you can make your website enjoyable for visitors and keep them coming back for more.
