Learn Business Website Design Basics Do's and Dont's

You are now ready to learn how to build a business website! Since this article covers how to start a retail site, affiliate site, and blog site, we will learn the business web site design basics for all sites here and discuss the do's and dont's for different types of sites in detail in the following chapters. Your site’s appearance can literally “make or break” you so use care in choosing colors, fonts, and images. Red-Green is the most common form of color blindness so you should avoid using these two colors together. Make sure you pick fonts that are easy to read in both style and size. Images are important to your site but they need to be crisp, clear, and load quickly. Do not use extremely large images because of the increased amount of loading time required. Also make sure that when resizing images, you maintain the original proportions so the picture does not look skewed. The navigation of your site is the single most important aspect of your site. You must make your site user friendly and easy to use. No one wants to click through five different links to get to the product they want to buy. Nothing on your site should be more than 3 clicks from the homepage including your shopping cart! Your “add to cart” buttons should be next to each product and make sure you provide your visitors with adequate descriptions. For example customers would enter your site on the home page, click one link to take them to the category of product they are searching for, click a second link to view a specific product, and click a third link to add the product to the shopping cart. Another aspect of your site is the Privacy Policy. Here you should clearly outline how any information you obtain about the customer will be used. For example, will you share their email address, phone number, etc. with any third party? If you are selling your own products on your site as a retailer make sure you identify a shipping policy and return policy. These simple policies can help you in resolving any customer complaints that may arise. Finally, make sure you make your contact information easy to find. This is usually located on a “Contact Us” page and should include any email addresses you want visitors to use along with your physical address and a telephone number. The telephone number can be a bit tricky. Since you probably do not want people calling you at all hours on your home phone or cell phone, we recommend setting up a number dedicated to your business. We encourage you to make your business phone a toll-free number. This provides your visitors with an added sense of security. It also makes your site and business appear more professional. Now we know that you may be running this business out of your guest bedroom, but your site visitors want to know they can trust you to deliver what you promise. A toll-free number goes a long way in building this trust. Also, make sure you keep normal business hours and post them on your site along with your time zone. Then answer your phone and return calls within the posted hours. For example, do not answer your phone at midnight! The same rules apply to your email (unless you are running an eBay business). EBay businesses do not require a phone number or operating hours since auctions are time sensitive. As with every step of learning how to start or create a business website, WebPalPro has a link to the phone service we recommend. Just click the link “Toll-Free Phone Number” and you can have your own toll-free number with voice mail for $10 per month. You now have learned the guidelines and basics for business website design and development.