Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It should be an avenue by which the customer can shop your site. It should be easy to view and load very quickly. This is your first impression and we know that first impressions can either close the deal or loose the deal. Make it simple. It is best to have links that are easily viewable by the reader that will navigate them to where they want to be. Tables are often a great choice when deciding on a way to design the main page of your site. Your main page should load very quickly, for more detail chances are if it takes the page more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k modem, the customer will click away to save time, hoping to find the information or product elsewhere. To increase the loading speed of your main page you should avoid large graphics or excessive graphics. Too many banners or special effects can cause a page to
Load slowly as well.
What makes them appealing? Were there some that you closed out of immediately? Why? Take notes and do your research. Keep in mind that when a person visits your site they have a goal in mind. They are either seeking information or shopping for a product. Give the person what they want without having to search for it. Be sure that all the information on your site is relevant to your product. Make the buyer think that they need your product to solve their problem.
To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you should stick to mild colors. If your site is a content site where the user will be doing a lot of reading, it is best to stick to black and white. Color can be added when using tables, for more detail as a way to brighten up the page, but remember to keep the overall look of the page professional and appealing to the audience that will be visiting most often. Since screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good idea to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may also choose to set the tables in your web page to span a percentage of the page rather than a set number of inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen sizes. You should remember that a lot of Internet users will not use the same browser as you, and therefore you should be sure that your site looks as good on other browsers as it does your own. You can do this by downloading several browsers through which to look at your page.
To create a web site that will give you long term income and truly become an online asset, you will need to develop something that is called an Authority Site. An authority site has certain characteristics that make them authority, and are not spammy sites that are slapped up on the Internet in 5 minutes. Those sites are certainly lacking these 3 things...
1) High Quality Content
The Content on your web site should be high quality and provide value to your visitors. If you do the following things with your content you can be sure that it hits the quality mark. If your web content solves a problem (such as how to get your Windows Vista to crash less frequently), then there is a good chance that your content provides value. If your web site content is formatted as top 10 lists, or FAQ's to popular questions and problems, you can be sure that your web site will be of value to your visitors. One way to obtain information that you know will provide value is to go to sites like Google groups or yahoo groups, see what questions people are asking in your niche and then answer them. A landing page that surveys your visitors is a great way to gather and answer questions in your niche. You can offer a free report for your visitors in exchange for their question. This is a great way to create content based on the latest up-to-date questions that are in your niche.
2) Fresh Content
Another characteristic that makes a site valuable and fresh is content that is updated regularly. The more often your content is updated, the more the search engines like your content. The more the search engines like your content, the more visitors you will get and the more other people will link to your content because they have found your content. For an established site, you should update your site at least once a week. A blog is a great way to manage fresh content on your web site. For really popular subjects, forums are a good way to host fresh content on your web site. The more you can get others to participate, the more useful it will be to visitors and the easier it will be for you to keep the content fresh on your web site. When you are beginning your site, you should post once a day for the next couple of months to get the momentum going on your web site.
3) Trustworthy
The content on your website should be accurate to the best of your ability. If you have reviews on your web site, and they are favorable, they should be favorable because you use the product/service yourself and/or you recommend it to others consistently. People can tell a fake review and it lowers the authority value of your website. The highest and most underrated factor of your Internet presence is your trustworthiness. If people consider you trustworthy, they will be more likely to buy from you, or follow your recommendations. If not, then the opposite is true as well. Put content on your website that you would use yourself if you were looking for the same information.
Once your web site becomes an authority site, you have a valuable Internet asset. The more you and your website is seen as an authority, the greater response you will get for add offers, leads, and revenue generation. These factors and more are necessary to make an authority site that you can sell for good $$$ down the road. To become a pro at making authority sites, you should join a membership site that teaches the principles of creating authority sites for the long term.
Both Jaspreet & B Hopkins are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.