Building A Successful Website with Visitors and Search Engines in mind.

Visitors In the majority of cases they want information and they want it now. How beautiful your site is will not be as relevant to them as long as it loads fast, has consistent layout and makes it easy to the user to evaluate its usefulness to them.

Search Engines When you are designing the layout always ask yourself what impact anything you plan to add to your site will have on the experience of your visitors and the capacity of search engines to efficiently index your pages. Add pages in order so that navigation through the website is consistent and progressive. Further details on search engine optimization are given in the section on promoting your site.

Always add a Site Map
A site map is just a simple list of web pages on your site. It gives your visitors a quick guide to what can be found there plus it's very useful to the search engine spiders. You can also use it to keep track of your site and see its structure and content all in one place. If your website is without a Site Map, there is every possibility that some of your visitors might leave your website within 10 seconds failing to find what they were looking for.

Navigation Structure
The aim of a web site's navigation is simply to allow users to get to the content they require. For sites that have a large number of sections and web pages (and information sites can be one of these) the navigation plan has to be properly researched and designed. You have to consider different types of visitors and simulate the most common steps they would take to find what they want on your site and the navigation plan has to optimize this movement. For example the steps required from searching a catalog of items, selecting from the catalog, adding them to a shopping cart, proceeding to check out, to entering the payment particulars is a specific sequence that should be facilitated by the navigation system. If the sequence is haphazard, it could lead to frustration or the user may miss an important step and you would have an aborted sale.

To find their way about, users need to know two things:

• Where they are now
• How to go elsewhere

Navigation does not exist in isolation; good site organization is a prerequisite for a coherent navigation system.

Objectives of a Navigation System
Navigation can be broken into two primary types, Location Indicators and Navigation Controls Location Indicators.

Location indicators let users know where they are in the site at the moment. It needs to be borne in mind that users coming from outside your site can enter at any page, not necessarily on a 'main' page. They need to be able to orientate themselves.

Equally it is important that users navigating around your site have a clear idea of where they are both in absolute terms and in relation to other content.

Location information should appear on every page of the site, in the same place and in the same style. Location indicators should tell the user precisely where they are and this should be clear even to a user who has entered the site at an internal page. The location indicator should be identifiable for what it is and make sense in the context of other navigation.

In simple sites a page banner - text or graphic - naming the page will be sufficient. For this to work the page name should also appear in the main navigation so that it is relevant within the overall structure of the site.

Color can be used. For example a different color background, contrast color or sidebar in each part of the site. To be really effective the color change should be reflected in the navigation. Using ‘breadcrumbs’ on every page is a good idea.

Breadcrumbs show you a series of hierarchical links that you have used to go from page to page within a section. Using breadcrumbs is like leaving a trail of the path you have followed. The breadcrumbs appear at the top of the content section, just below the main navigation template. Each element in the breadcrumb is a link to that section or subsection. This helps in avoiding a series of back buttons allowing the user to directly go back to the main section page or another sub section. More importantly, it always shows the context of the page that is being viewed and how it belongs to a section or sub-section.

Navigation Controls
Navigation controls are the main navigation links; they allow users to move around the site. Whether they comprise images or text they should be predictably located in the same place, and with the same appearance, on each page.

These have several purposes

• To allow users to move about within the site
• To tell users what information is available at the link
• To work with location indicators to orientate users

A good navigation control:

• Is clear: it looks like navigation
• Leads to obvious content - users have a good idea what they will find if they click
• Is consistent with other navigation controls
• Is predictable in its style and location on the page

What to include in the Main Navigation Controls
Having broken your content into categories you need a link to each category in the main navigation bar. Some categories will be a single page; others will be whole directories of pages. It helps to think of sections with a lot of content as mini sites, each with its own home page to which the main navigation link goes and which can be used to further orientate the user. Each section can also have its own subsidiary navigation if it contains multiple pages.

Note that links to other sites should NEVER appear in the main navigation controls.

Secondary Navigation Secondary navigation is important for the following reasons.

• If a user gets lost then a drop down box, search function or a site map provides an opportunity for them to quickly re-orientate themselves or get back to a familiar page
• A site map page can provide more detail about what is in each section of the site than a navigation bar can
• Secondary navigation provides a quick way for users to get to content at a deep level, especially in areas of the site where there is a lot of content Most, if not all, sites will benefit from the inclusion of some form of secondary navigation.

Communicating to your visitors with colors, background and text
In how many different ways does your website communicate to your visitors. One of them is determined by the choice of colors, background and text you use.

During site creation, it is very easy to fall into the trap of “if I can, I will” thinking. This method of thinking is very dangerous. The premise is if I can create a site with 256 differently colored words, backgrounds and graphics, I will. Your site may look great, but what will you accomplish. The disadvantage in creating a single site with dozens of different colors is color compatibility between different operating systems, monitors and browsers. If the browser of your visitor cannot show an exact color from your website, it will choose the closest or mix the nearest two colors. This is called dithering. The result can be something you did not want or expect.

The best way to avoid dithering is to optimize your site colors. The best way to optimize your colors is to use the colors in a 216-color palette. By designing a site with this in mind, your site will appear, as it should to all of your visitors.

Colors evoke a broad array of emotions, and influence decision-making process every day. By using these nonverbal clues to your advantage, you can influence how your visitors feel about your site.

Use colors that are not too jazzy and flashy but are easy on the eyes. Your site should be as simple as possible – not all shiny and gaudy. Ensure that your chosen color scheme can be over-ridden by the user's browser settings. Some people have eye conditions that mean they can read only black on white, while others can read only yellow on black - if your design is flexible, everyone will be able to read it.

Choose a background that is a single, solid color. If possible, avoid loud textures, patterns or images. The choice of background and foreground colors is not as important as the contrast between the background and the text. A simple way to check this is to take a screen shot of your proposed page and use a graphic editor to convert this into a gray scale image - by removing color from the image you will be better able to judge if the level of contrast between background and foreground colors is sufficient.

Apart from the color, your text font and format also play an important part in communicating with your visitors. Here are some tips pertaining to the text format to be used for your website.

• Avoid, if possible, the use of graphics in place of actual text. Text size and color can be changed by the user's browser settings, but a graphic is fixed, and can't be changed in this way.
• Avoid large blocks of italic text - this can appear 'wobbly' on screen, and is difficult for many people to read.
• You don't have to use large font size on your page. Standard (medium) size text is fine - visitors to your site can adjust the text size to suit their needs by altering their browser settings. However, ensure that you use relative font sizes in your code, not absolute font sizes. Some browsers can't over-ride absolute font sizes. Don't underline large blocks of text. Some people find underlined text difficult to read. In addition, since underlining usually indicates hyperlinked text, it can be confusing for users if it is used where no link exists.
• Capitalization of whole sentences should be avoided, as many people find it difficult to read sentences written in capitals, and THEY COME ACROSS AS IF THEY ARE BEING SHOUTED AT VERY LOUDLY!!!
• Use headings appropriately. Don't use headings simply to increase text size. Some browsers can present the user with an overview of a web page based on the headings and sub-headings - this doesn't work if headings have been used inappropriately, or not used when they should be.

Site Usability and Convenience
There is no mystery to usability. It simply involves creating a site, which is accessible to the majority of people, is easy to use and get around and delivers on its promises. You can have a site that meets the most important standards of usability by planning it well and always keeping the end user in mind. Remember that web sites should not be designed for their owners - they should be designed for their users.

Problems with usability could be said to stem from just two sources: the site itself and the user. In fact the site is always at fault; if a user, however experienced or inexperienced, has problems navigating, getting information or understanding the site.

While websites have become far more complex, web users have become less rather than more experienced as more and more people go online. It is a mistake to think that the majority of users will be web or even computer savvy and will understand subtle clues about content. Most will not.


Defining a Usable Site
A usable site will: Help users achieve a goal, usually to find something, such as information, or obtain something, such as a book. Make it easy for them to achieve that goal Make it possible to achieve the goal quickly Make achieving that goal a pleasant experience.

A site will be generally usable if:
The content is good and relevant
The content is easy to find
The content can be found quickly
The page is pleasant to look at and cleanly designed

Good Content
A site with good content, regardless of its subject, is one that provides products or information that is useful or beneficial to users. A good usable site will make it clear what information or content is available and at what price AND what is not available. A good usable site should define clearly all subscription packages offered. Ease of Access to Information Good navigation, precise location indicators, secondary navigation, clear linked text and a well organized structure all contribute to making information easy to find for a wide range of different users.


This article has been brought to you by Barbara King owner of Direct Sales Connection Connecting Women to Direct Sales

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