Clackamas News Articles

When landing at a website, what makes you say ‘yikes’ and click the back button? For me, it is nasty elevator music with no “off” button.

Signs of Webmaster Newbies

All of us have been “newbies” at one point in our webmastering lives.To make what we thought were impressive sites, we spent hours searching the free javascript sites, dhtml sites and so on for copy-and-paste scripts.

You can generally spot a first timer’s website right off the bat because the webmaster adds a smorgasboard of javascripts, animated gifs and other components to the site, thinking it makes the site look technologically advanced. Unfortunately, this only makes a site look amateur.

Creating an Amateur Image

You might have a brick and mortar business that’s been around for the last decade, with tons of satisfied customers.On the Internet, however, your visitors do not know your reputation.  To create trust, you want a professional image.  When designing your website, here are some things to avoid so that your business does not look amateur or like a fly-by-night operation:

• Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts - For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have “fancy” backgrounds with different colored text. Not only does it make your text hard to read, but if you are including pictures of products, it is hard to make them blend in with the background.
• Pages that are larger than the browser screen - There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. Most web usters have their desktop resolutions set at 1024 x 768. Try to stay within those confines.
• Sound effects - Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. If you have a music site, you can create a jukebox that allows the user to click play if he or she wants to hear it. The same goes with audio advertisements or other background sound effects — have a pause or “off” button.
• “Cool” effects - About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Everyone was doing this. This does not help establish your online reputation. Flash introductions take forever to create and many of them are just downright stupid. These introductions can take a long time to load and generally, people will not view them. Another thing that beginners think is “cool” are page fading effects, animated images and scrolling text. When I first started out, I was guilty of adding these things because I thought it made me look like I knew what I was doing. However, the cold reality is that these effects are a waste of time and a turnoff. I’ve seen some sites, designed by supposed design specialists, where the links scroll by really fast and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Don’t waste your time adding in these effects. People who are visiting your site are looking for specific information or products and not design components that will give them a headache.
• No clear navigation scheme - Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You should give your visitors a way to easily navigate through your site. Because of their popularity, your visitors will be most familiar with menus that are on the top or the left. Regardless of where you decide to place your menu, make sure that it is in the same place throughout your site. An amateur web design has no clearly defined and consistent navigation menu.
• No search feature - Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. If you don’t know how to do this, try Google’s free search box or another quality free service.This creates a “user friendly” site and shows that you care about your visitor’s experience.
• “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t try to force your visitor to go through the shopping cart process to find out what the cost will be — many of them won’t do it, anyway.
• Policies - An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. Providing contact information is an important “trust factor,” particularly if you are selling products or services.
• Under construction pages - “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. Do not bother linking to pages under construction. Add a link to your menu or sitemap at such time as the page is completed.
• No online shopping cart - If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. When people are looking to buy something online, they want to be able to buy it immediately. Generally, they do not want to mail a check or money order. If you don’t have a merchant account, take a look at Paypal or, if y ou are selling digital products, consider services like Clickbank.For people who already have a merchant account, there are free and quality shopping carts available, like Mals-e.com, which also givesyou the ability to offer an affiliate program.

What’s Your Gripe?

Newbie or pro, you can voice your opinion about what makes a stinking website at the NotGuru’s survey about poor website design.If you’re looking for giveaways, software and tips to help your fledgling online business, the Not Guru blog delivers plenty of resources every day.If you have a couple of seconds to spare, take the site design survey and feel free to comment - the results are interesting.