Tips to build a website

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10 tips to make your WebSelf website look more professional 13/07/2012 15:20:01 Little tips and tricks are often enough to give your website a more profesionnal and organised look. We present you this short list of recommendations and tips that maybe you didn’t think of. Enjoy! 1- Use the slideshow module to display logos and images You have a partner section in your website where you display many logos? You features some companies that help you in your activity… or maybe you have a testimonial or Latest uploads section. By using the slideshow module, you will be able to create 10 successive slides, where each can contain a text and/or an image and you can make then clickable to anything you want. You can also choose transition effects between the slides, like a PowerPoint document. It’s an efficient and elegant way to present a number of things ... and it saves a lot of space when compared to the space required for the other modules normally required to present many items on one page! 2- Use the favicon for branding and logo repetition You want your potential and current customers to recognise you at a quick glance? Think repetition, repetition, repetition! The more you send people a message, the more likely they’ll remember it. We see examples of this in our everyday lives in dunways, newspeper, televesion, radio, etc. The web-friendly way of repeating? Put your message, logo or brand everywhere you can! That’s why you should use the favicon option to display that logo in the browser’s tab as well as your logo default placment in your website. Even if the user is not browsing your website but has it ope in another tab, he’ll still see the branding and associate it with your services… and let’s say it, favicons can be cute as well! 3- Use the Flash module to bring your website to life! Even if your now an Actionscript master and can’t create your own .SWF files, you can find many flash generators online, like Flash Vortex, to help you creating a cute little animated banner for example. Some professionals also offer help with creating a customised Flash files at an affordable price. Even if it’s only for a little « Welcome!» banner, it’s eye-catching! The Flash module allows you to importe your ,swf files in the easiest possible way. 4- Use a photomontage for your site’s banner. A photo montage is a composite photograph in which you can include anything you’d like. Make your own image instead of using the ones by default or a purchased image. With a photomontage, you can put different pictutres together and even add text of any font or color! 5- Use the social modules You have a Facebook page or a Twitter account? Publish them on your website with the Tweetbox, widget or social sharing modules! Encourage conversations with the Facebook Comments module. 6-Use the form module instead of a email link Email links are out, enough said. And it’s not just a trend, it’s actually because of your own security! It avoid you from getting unecessary spam because crawlers got a hold of your email address and let’s face it, showing off a Hotmail address doesn’t look very professional. Not everyone wants to create a professional email linked to a domain name, especially if you’re the forgetful type. The form module can make sure you receive your emails properly and keep the anonymity of not showing your email to anyone… or any crawler! 7- Don’t make your visitors think! Build your website’s content logically and have a clear structure. If your visitor has to search to find what he’s looking for, eve for a second, it’s all over. They’re gone. Keep your page count to a minimum and make sure they have relevant content. Delete all that isnt necessary. You might need to restructure, but in the long run it’s usually worth it. 8- « You are here » Each page has different content, of course, but since they’retemplate is always the same, getting lost in a website can be easy. We ofte forget to identify the page’s title in the page itself. If a visitor clicks on Contact, then Homepage then the Shop, there is no difference in the page structure itself and at a quick glance, you can be confused as to actually where you are. Add a text module with the page’s title to the top. See it as a « You are here » mark. People will appreciate and if you feel in a designer mood, you can even create little images for each page title so you can choose your font and text color, add a drop shadows or a glow, etc. Insert that image into an image module and there you go : customised, pretty and efficiant page title! 9- Learn to choose between what you want and what is good web practise Always remember that your website, your making it for otential and current customers, not for yourself. We all want to have lots of little gizmos and fun things on our website, but if they are disruptive to your site’s browsing experience or too distracting.. or if they make your website longer to load, you might as well get rid of them, weither you love that little animated « feed me » kitten widget or not. Always remember to go straight to the point. Clocks, puzzles, Flash games, those 3D panoramic photo album that take 4 minute to load properly, try to avoir them. You website has to be useful and informative, before being a playground. 10- Encourage your user to react Add a guestbook to receive feedback, keep a blog and ask people to comment your posts, use the poll module or the Facebook comment module. By getting your audience involved with you and your content, you will make a non negligible step toward building and maintaining your audience. Write compelling and relevant articles and people might even share them on social medias, giving yourself little features here and there and bring more traffic to your site! Keep in mind that making your website is a learning experience. There is no bad practise or errors, only steps toward a better website! Don’t hesitate to look around and compar your website to other that you like or you know are successful. Happy webmastering! Posted by Maud •   Add a comment •   0 Comments

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