Easy-To-Read Web Pages Will Increase Sales (Revised)
Web pages with readable text will generate more sales than fancy
pages that are hard to read. Follow these design tips and not
only will your web pages be easier to read, but you'll keep
potential buyers at your site and position yourself to increase
sales.
Keep Pages Short -- Especially Your Home Page
* Put important content at the top of your pages so it's visible
on the screen. Users may not scroll through lengthy pages. * In
general, limit the length of a web page to two screens. * Split
up long pages into several pages.
Layout
* Use left aligned text rather than justified text. * Write
short paragraphs (4-5 lines). * Indent the beginning of each
paragraph in sales letters. * Limit the width of your web pages
to fit your visitors' monitors. Your visitors don't want to
scroll left to right to see your content. * Keep the look,
layout, navigation, typefaces, and colors consistent on all
pages.
Break up Copy
* Break up long text with white space, color, columns, lines,
and graphics. * Break up copy into easy-to-read sections * Use
subheadings and bulleted lists to highlight benefits.
Colors
* Use color sparingly. Too much color can be distracting. *
Select a background color that contrasts with the text color to
make your content stand out. * Avoid blue backgrounds when using
blue links (the standard link color). * Avoid dark backgrounds.
Dark text on a light background is easy to read. * Avoid text on
multi-colored background images. Such background images will
decrease the readability of your text. * Use web-friendly
colors. Colors that look bright on your monitor may appear dark
on someone else's and make your message unreadable.
Typography
* Limit the use of small type, reverse type (white text on dark
background), and italics. * Avoid using UPPER CASE in your body
copy. * Limit the number of fonts in a web site to a maximum of
three (proferably only two). * Use a type size that is geared to
your target audience. For instance, use larger type for older
readers. * Emphasize important words, headlines, and sentences
by using color, bold, and different text sizes. But do so
sparingly. Too much bold or color reduces the impact. * Avoid
underlining. Readers might think your underlined words or
sentences are links. * Use standard fonts such as Arial,
Verdana, and Times New Roman. If you're using fonts your viewers
don't have on their computers, their browesrs will substitute
those fonts and your web pages will look different on their
computers than you intended them to look. * Avoid special
characters like curly quotes, curly apostrophes, n-dashes, and
m-dashes. These characters may convert into bogus characters on
web sites. * Use fonts that are appropriate for your subject
matter and your audience.
Images and Graphics
* Use images and graphics that support your sales message. *
Keep animation, blinking text, and scrolling text to a minimum.
They distract the reader from focusing on your text.
Check Your Pages
Web pages may look different on your visitors' computers,
depending on their computer, monitor, browser, and fonts. What
may look great with one browser may look unprofessional with
another. View your web pages with different browsers, computers,
platforms (PC and Mac), screen resolutions, and settings.
Statistics indicate that visitors use a wide variety of browsers
and platforms.
Keep visitors, prospects, and buyers at your site with
easy-to-read, interesting content. An easy-to-read, professional
web site can maximize your sales. Apply these techniques now.