Design checklist

What are the secrets of the successful websites? Why do some websites succeed while the others fail? More and more webmasters are asking themselves these questions. The answers are often more obvious than you may think.

Below are 10 tips for better, more successful web sites. This checklist of website design tips covers the primary points that you must include in your website design plan if you want a successful site. Beyond these basic design steps you can customize your checklist to reflect your unique situation. Remember, this is the most important part of your design project.

Top 10 Website Design Tips

Know your audience - Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers.

Clearly identify the purpose of your website - Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service, conveying a message, etc. Keep your focus!

Make your website personal - The most professionally designed site won't sell if your customers don't believe in you.

Loading times - You have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customers attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible.

Use a site map or directory page - Make site navigation easy and intuitive. If your customer can not navigate your site to find what they want, they will go elsewhere.

Content - Good content sells product and ideas. Review your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

Consistency - Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

Update and check all links - Make sure your site works! Check all of your websites links regularly. Dead links will hurt you in the search engines.

Start Simple - When you start to build your site and add information and products to it do it one page at a time, completing each page as much as possible as you go.

Optimize website - 85% of all web users find what they are looking for via the top search engines. Make sure that your page is designed to maximize your placement.

Think ahead

Implementing the ten steps above probably will not make your site as successful as one of the big websites overnight. But, if they are implemented correctly and integrated into an overall website design and/or marketing scheme, you should see a marked improvement in the sites traffic over time.

Gene DeFazzio is the author and webmaster of the Rocketface(R) Workshop. (http://www.rocketface.com/)