5 Steps to a Better Site

How do you attract a lot of visitors? How do you keep people hooked? This article will describe how to, in general, make your website memorable.

1. Content: Content is the key to a great website. Without original, slightly humorous, and interesting content, your site will be a failure. Sure, every site includes writing, articles, goodies, etc. So what more is there to add you ask? Well, the thing about original content is while you may not be able to think of new unique categories, you can definitely think of unique content inside these categories. Those little widgets you got from some games site? Not counted as original. You can also think of original blog topics, and you should always encourage discussion and interaction from your visitors. But there are some must-have pages. An “About” page is good - you want your visitors to know your background, your personality, your name, etc. The “Site” page tells you about, well, the site! It also gives you a brief history lesson on the site, and it contains the important Site Credits that every site should have, right? The “Contact” page is another must-have, your visitors are going to need a way to contact you if something is wrong with your site, or they have a question, suggestion, etc.
2. Design: The next key factor in making your website excellent is your layout. A layout is a first impression, and if your layout isn’t well designed or coded, then viewers might not think your site is worthy of their attention, and “click!” Your site has disappeared from their screen. Please, none of that bright text on a dark background, and make sure your colors look good together. Blue on blue on blue matches, but it’s too much blue! A little contrast if you please. Large text is also appreciated, as is readable fonts, and iFrames? So last year! Also, make sure your layout is compatible in IE, Mozilla, Safari, etc. If you aren’t an experienced designer, I would suggest getting a premade layout until you can make your own, well-designed layout.
3. Attitude: How you present yourself affects what viewers think about your site. If you talk to people in a rude way, other people aren’t going to like your site. Attitude also includes how you talk about your site. If you say “yea my site sucks just so you know and don’t make fun of it” then people aren’t going to think you take your site seriously, and, once again “click!” Always be positive about your site, and always be open to criticism.
4. Spelling/Grammar: Always make sure that you’re checking your spelling and grammar as you go along building your site. Most viewers take grammar and spelling mistakes as a sign of a unprofessional site. When you see this sentence, what do you think: “hey everyone i ain’t gonna be here four a wile cuz i’m gonna go on vaceshun wit my famley so don’t come here four a wile.” Most people think, “uhhhhh…..?” You don’t want people thinking this, and a lot of people’s pet peeves are grammar mistakes *cough* Clem! *cough*. You want to keep your viewers happy, and a professional looking site = happiness.
5. Effects: Yes, the flashing text and fancy hover effects are cool at first, but after a while they’re just plain annoying. You might not mind them because, well, you already know what your site contains, so you don’t need to read your material in depth. But for us visitors, we have to actually read your content, and that flashing text we can see out of the corner of our eyes? Annoying! So keep it simple, mkay?

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