Making Your Website User-Friendly

So you, as a frequent user of the Internet, think you have what it takes to make a website on the Internet that will attract thousands of visitors? Probably not. Sure, you can make the web page, but without the ability to make your visitors come back or recommend it to their friends, you don't have any chance in the Internet world.

With the growing use of technology, the use of the Internet is growing. Because of this growth, new sites pop up everyday that cover the same old topics. Great, make your website. But unless the site happens to be user-friendly, you, as the creator, aren't going to get anything back from it because your visitors will get so confused they'll just leave. In order to help you out, here's some nice tips concerning making your website user-friendly.

REMEMBER THE DIAL-UP: People out on the Internet still use dial-up. Just because you have DSL, and your site loads within five seconds doesn't mean anything. If you really want to find out how your site compares speed-wise to other websites, try one of the free websites available on the Internet that offer that service. (See Source 3) DSL happens to be about ten times faster than dial-up, so if your site takes ten seconds to completely load up, it will take a minute and a half on some of your visitor's machines.

HONOR THY BROWSER: If you're using Internet Explorer, remember that someone out there is using Firefox. If you're using Firefox, remember that someone may be using AOL or Opera. The point is that you need to remember to design for all of the available browsers for once. I would suggest downloading as many browsers as you can to be able to check out your site from different standpoints. If you don't want to do that, however, I would suggest at least having Firefox and Internet Explorer. Those two browsers have the largest difference in how they display coding. Your site may look like man's best friend on Firefox, but once you switch to Internet Explorer, you realize your navigation went to outer space, and your text looks like someone sat on it. Another fact to remember is that different users are using different computer operating systems as well. Mac computers display pages differently than Windows XP computers. In a world full of differences...well, it just makes our job harder.

NO MYSTERY MEAT, PLEASE: Your navigation MUST be clear. Want someone to sign up for some program you're offering, so you offer them to the link on a different website to visit your own site? Too bad. They leave within five seconds because they can't find the link to the page you wanted them to see. Remember that your visitor's ease of use and comfort are two big sellers when it comes to keeping a visitor ten seconds or forty minutes. If you want to keep your visitors and make them look at what you have to offer, make the links for them to find different pages completely visible.

NEON IS NOT ACCEPTABLE: Use normal colors. Bright neon green may look "cute" to you, but to your visitors, it's just ugly. It hurts their eyes. They'll exit out of the browser, or at least, that's what I would do. Normal, darker colors tend to "baby" a visitor the most. If you want to play it safe, use white. White's the Internet basic. Don't know what colors would go together? There's multiple color scheme sites online. (See Source 5)

HAVE SENSE WITH ADSENSE: I know everyone wants to make money off of their websites, but when you have so many "Ad Sense" ads on your page that I can barely tell where the content is, you've gone overboard. Sure, making money is nice, but if no one finds a reason to come back because there's so many ads, you're not going to be making much money, are you?

NEW CONTENT: As I said earlier, there's so many sites out there at the moment that have the same content that it may be difficult for you to find your place on the web. That's why making your own articles and content is a big deal when it comes to having your own website. Can't write? There's multiple writers online that would love to write articles for you for a little bit of payment. Depending on the writer, you could pay anywhere from fifty cents to six dollars for a four-hundred word article. In most cases, however, what you pay for is the quality you get, so remember that if you decide to choose a writer. Be inventive with your content, however. Don't just restate what's gone on in the news lately or the new release of a video game. Mix facts from different sources. Add your opinion. Humor's always nice. Make a completely different article.

INTERACTIVITY: Do you want your guests to return? Your guests won't return very often (if ever) if they have no reason to return. Adding a guest book or a comment system (See Source 6) is a great way to get your visitors to come back often. If you're up for it, you can even add a mini-chat room called a "Chat Box" where your visitors can easily speak amongst one another. (See Source 7) Another route to take is asking guests to submit content, maybe for fame or for money. If none of those ideas appeal to you, make a forum that corresponds with the content of your website and refer your guests there so they'll be coming back and forth between the two websites. (See Source 8)

SEARCH ENGINE, BABY!: If you wish to have multiple guests see your site, there has to be a way for them to discover it. Search Engines are the easiest way for guests to discover your website. If you don't have the time to sit and submit your site to every search engine that exists, there's sites that will do it for you. (See Source 9) Hopefully, if your site has the rest of the tips in tact, guests will love your site and add your link to their own site, making it raise even higher on the Search Rankings.

BIGGER IS BETTER: When it comes to text, bigger is better. Tiny text doesn't work for people who have eye problems or people who are sitting farther away from the screen. If you want to be the most helpful for you guests, keep your text size about average and at a decent sized font. No Comic Sans. No WebDings. I suggest Verdana, Georgia, or Arial. Any other font is a bad idea. Remember - for your text to show up in the font that you'd like it to show up on, on their computer, they have to have the font already installed. Very few web-searchers have specialty fonts installed, so you're better off using the basics.

PICTURE THIS: Be reasonable with the amount of pictures you stick on your website. Want to make a gallery of pictures? Go for it. While you go for it, however, remember that twenty 800x600 pictures aren't user-friendly. If you want to display those pictures, how about you use thumbnails (smaller pictures that link to the larger picture that's hosted on another page)? Sure, it will require having knowledge of graphic software, but you're building a website and knowing graphic software almost goes hand and hand with it. (See Source 1) If you're too lazy to learn how to use a program, how about you use one of the many websites that will thumbnail and host the picture for you? (See Source 2)

KISS: It's a favorite webdesigning acronym that means "Keep It Simple Stupid". When it comes to webdesigning, you need to keep it at a basic level. That means, if you can help it, don't use any flash animations, javascripts, glittery pictures, or anything that's probably "trendy". Don't get your ideas off of what your friend puts on their MySpace profiles. MySpace profiles are such an abhorrence of webdesigning, it makes me scared.

POP-IT DOWN: Don't use pop-ups for anything. Please. It annoys the visitor. It's just annoying.

PAY FOR IT: If possible, pay for your website to get it hosted on a paid server. I would suggest using trying out free servers before moving to a paid one, but if you want your content to be taken truly seriously, you need to invest in a paid domain. If you want to be taken more seriously, but don't have the extra money lying around, there's many paid domains that offer to host experienced webdesigners. (See Source 10) If you don't want to move onto paid, at least use a site that has a good reputation. A site that's offering a domain at 424238nalsj.com doesn't seem very reliable, does it? Your guest won't think so, either. I, personally, refuse to click on any website that uses a .co.nr address because clicking on one once sent a virus very quickly to my computer. There are great places to start your webdesigning career that are more reliable. (See Source 11 and Source 12)

That ends my tips. Following this guidelines, your site should be user-friendly and a more popular site on the Internet.

Source 1 - Free Graphic Program: http://www.gimp.org/
Source 2 - Free Photo-thumbnailing and hosting: http://www.imageshack.us/
Source 3 - Your Site Optimization Stats: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
Source 4 - Browser "Cam": http://www.browsercam.com/
Source 5 - Color Schemes: http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
Source 6 - Free Comment System: http://haloscan.com/
Source 7 - Free Chatbox: http://www.cbox.ws/
Source 8 - Best Free Online Forum Service: http://invisionfree.com/
Source 9 - Free WebSearch Submissions: http://www.submitexpress.com/submit.html
Source 10 - Subdomain Host List: http://fallen-rose.com/?page_id=71
Source 11 - Free WebHost: http://www.freewebs.com/
Source 12 - Free Blog Hosts: http://www.blogger.com/ , http://fallen-rose.com/?page_id=67