Creating A Quality Web Site Design!

In this article, I will attempt to cover the basics of creating a great quality web design template for your site. Now it's a known fact that the layout or "eye candy" as I put it will determine whether your visitors will stay more than 15 seconds or they will just become another statistic.

That's right, if you don't catch your visitors attention right away, statistics shows us that your visitors will come and go within 15 seconds or less.

That doesn't leave you with a lot of time to grab someone's attention!

Some of you may be asking yourself:

Well why does this happen????

See when you think about it, 15 seconds to the "browsing eye" is like an eternity. In other words, it takes about 15 seconds for the average person to browse your main page and determine whether they will explore your site further!

So with that being said;

How do we grab your visitors attention????

Every new client of mine is asked to perform the same tasks. I ask them to explore their competitor's web sites and look for specific triggers that would make them want to click on or buy right away. More times than none, my clients will notice specific "Headlines" or "Graphics" that really peek their interest. In doing this, you'll have 1st hand knowledge on what you expect your visitors will see and possibly expect themselves.

Step 2, I'll ask my clients to do one more process just like the previous one. I'll ask them to make a list of all the "eye candy" that really caught their attention and write me a little note as to why it caught their attention. In doing this, it will give your web designer a 1st hand knowledge on what to implement within your site!!!

With these great tasks, you've made your job and the job of your web designer a lot easier to target your audience.

Sites that sell "Web Site Templates" :

You may have seen some sites that sell your the right for a specific "Template Style". There are 100's of resources out there. I need to clarify something for you, these templates are targeted at web designers only!!! Reason being, the files that you receive will no doubt require some expensive and time consuming software just to open them.

Now being a designer, I'm not about to "knock" pre-made templates but there's a couple of things you may want to consider:

1) Although the templates you may encounter are very impressive, you will be sharing your layout template with 100's, maybe 1000's of other sites. The reason why they are so cheat is because those "specific templates" are sold and re-sold as much as possible!

2) I've noticed that many template examples out there on the web are extremely "Graphic Driven". This will result in "slow loading times". I'm sure we've all come across a site that seemed to take FOREVER to load!! How long did you actually wait for the site to load????

The best way to get a template is to have someone professional design your web site layout for you! This will ensure that your template is uniquely designed for your business. It will be easier for you to make changes in the future. Typically, a template may cost you between $0-$500 depending on the intensity and added features!

Now, we've talked about "Slow loading pages". I've found a good "norm" to stick with when it comes to size and speed: Web sites are compiled of 2 elements:

1) Graphics & Layouts

2) Programming & Pages

Both of them require memory from your computer when downloading them. If one or the other is too large then this may result in negative results for your visitors.

Here's a good norm to stick with, either you or your web designer should stick with these specs:

1) Graphic Design Layout: Should be no more than: 30-50K in size

2) Programming Pages: Shouldn't be more than: 10-30k in size

Giving your entire web page no more than 40k-80k in size. Anything drastically more will result in the loss of many visitors from slow downloading pages.

Animation: Last but not least, making "some" aspects of you page stand out by adding small size animations. PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT overkill your site with graphics and animation!!! I can't stress this enough, your visitors will most likely get a head ache from it and won't be coming back very soon.

Instead, try targeting specific promotions or services you wish to attract your visitors to right away! Many sites exchange "animated banners" with other sites to exchange traffic. I personally NEVER take part in adding ANY banners on my site. I honestly feel that banners only take away from the design, not add to it! A typical "Banner Dimensions" is 468px x 60px. There are many other sizes!

What I will usually take part in, if any, is smaller, more unique banners that are geared to complimenting an article or text with it. This is much more effective because study shows us that "Content (text)" accompanied by a "graphic image" is more likely to be read by our visitors than just text on its own.

That about wraps it up to having an effective web site template. Please look for my "continued" issues related to this article.

About The Author

Martin R. Lemieux

President

Smartads Information Centre

Advertising, Marketing Resources & Web Design

http://www.smartads.info

Webmasters Playground

Webmaster Awards & Web Design Resources

http://www.flyinggelatingames.com

WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE ?

You may use this article on your site as is but you MUST send me a note support@smartads.info Thank You!

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


The Testimonial Trick

One of the most popular methods of traffic generation is... Read More

How To Create A Stunning Drop Capital Effect On Your Web Pages

Drop Capitals are frequently used in many newspapers, books and... Read More

Use Feng Shui Techniques To Design a Harmonic Website For Your Business

By following feng shui guidelines and techniques, you can build... Read More

10 Tips for Killer Website Design

Does website design make a difference in how long people... Read More

Making Good Websites that Stand Out

Websites, there's literally billions of them out there in cyber-space.... Read More

Custom Web Site Design Strategies

Web site design has certainly, in the past decade, evolved... Read More

3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website

Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the... Read More

How to Make a Website (Minus the Headaches)

There is nothing wrong with making your own website if... Read More

Testimonials Can Increase Your Web Traffic

We've all seen and read product testimonials. They're a very... Read More

7 Tips To Increase Sales With Your Ecommerce Web Site

Ecommerce is just exploding right now on the Net. More... Read More

The Right Trigger Words

CNN.com's designers have gone out of their way to make... Read More

Top Ten Ways to Increase Web Sales - Part 2

You have only 10 seconds to impress your potential buyer.... Read More

Why Hire a Professional to Design Your Web Site?

Creating an appealing, functional, and effective Web site is much... Read More

Basic Graphic Design

Wether you design your business brochures, flyers, web page, or... Read More

Understanding How HTML Color Codes Work

Ever wonder how HTML color codes are put together? For... Read More

So Much About META Tags!

I've written about META tags in the past, and I... Read More

Website Design Firm

Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.When choosing... Read More

How To Make It Easy For Your Web Designer To Build Your Website

You have an idea for a website and you are... Read More

Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio

When you start building your online business and search for... Read More

Banner Enchancement - Designing Your Banner

A well designed web site is great to have, but... Read More

The Importance of Choosing Your Website Keywords Carefully

The importance of choosing your website keywords carefully is very... Read More

6 Website Design Disasters and How to Avoid Them?.

Let's face it; the line from A Field of Dreams... Read More

Let Your Website Make You $$$ While You Sleep! and All That Other B.S.!

Well, you've got your product, started your home business, and... Read More

Becoming A Website Designer

The ability to create simple, attractive and functional web pages... Read More

Can Your Visitors Contact You From Your Website

Argh, where's the contact button?! Believe it or not, some... Read More

Cascading Style Sheets for Better Web Design

In cascading style sheets you can specify how your web... Read More

Simplify Your Web Site for Clarity and Ease of Use

There are plenty of web sites out there in which... Read More

Selling Multiple Products? Avoid These Top Blunders

When your web site sells more than a dozen items,... Read More

Free Online Tools to Design (and Maintain) Your Website

These days, it seems that everyone has a website. Unfortunately,... Read More

Creating a Basic Web Design Template

A "template" is simply a design format which you can... Read More

Get FASTER Download Times By Making BIGGER Web Pages!

As a webmaster you already know how important it is... Read More

What I Look For In a Website

As my occupation is that of a proofreader, one of... Read More

Top Ten Ways to Increase Web Sales - Part 1

You have only 10 seconds to impress your potential buyer.... Read More