The Internet is a remarkable publishing medium. With just a little effort, you can make your web pages visually irresistible by playing with color, shapes and text.

Whether your websites are already launched or you’re ready to create your first few, use the 3 simple steps below to kick things up a notch and make your sites professional and appealing.

Step 1: Grab People’s Attention with a Photo or Graphic.

Without a logo or visual image to represent the central offering on your web page, you are asking potential clients to immediately take a big leap and dive into your text.

Why risk the possibility of them not reading your important message? People browsing the web are notoriously impatient. Capture their attention with a photo/graphic before they click off your site.

Choose the perfect image from Photodisc, ClipArt or Corbis for as little as $9 to $90 per image. Human beings are visual creatures. Consider your favorite magazine for a moment. Would it still be your favorite if it used only text on its cover this month?

Step 2: Boost the credibility of your service or product by using a professional color scheme

Using the image you selected in step one, it’s easy to go the next step and pull together a professional looking color scheme. ColorSchemer is a small, inexpensive software (US$25) that helps you choose a color scheme that is eye-catching and unexpected, even if you’re color-challenged. When picking colors, don’t be afraid to let your personality show through. Check out http://www.colorschemer.com/.

Step 3: Use graphical “signposts” throughout your material to help readers absorb your message

As you browse the web, start making mental notes about sites you enjoy visiting. I’m willing to bet it’s the ones that break up text with colored bullets, numbers and other signposts that mentally engage you the most. I’ll even go so far as to say that a website that does not use graphical signposts shows a disregard for the needs of the reader, intentionally or not.

Think of these mini-graphics as a way of showing consideration to your reader. They want to read your material and you help them make it easy by providing mental white space and places to rest their eyes.

Just a few No-No’s:

Don’t overdo

The power of visual communication can be diluted if too many images are used on each page. There is both art and science to finding the right balance since too many images on a website can be just as ineffective as too few. The key is to work at finding this balance by studying other websites.

Don’t use Flash or other animation

More often than not, flash/animation comes across as cheap rather than professional and has only been shown to be effective in very specific circumstances. Moreover, web pages created with Flash don’t rank well with search engines. If you must use it, do so very sparingly and be sure to have it professionally designed.

Whatever you do, don’t be bland

With millions of websites published every day, you must stand out in order to be noticed. Graphics that reflect you, your offering and your personality will help you become more attractive to clients — quickly, affordably and with style

One of the challenges of working online is to alleviate your client’s natural reservations in a new and unfamiliar environment - the virtual world. Making things more comfortable for them is your number one priority and graphics will help you achieve that. By going the extra mile to make your websites look 100% professional, you become more credible in your own eyes as well.

By: Robin Eldred

One of the hot new website promotion tips du jour is the Google Sitemap. This is a small XML file that sits on a website and provides information for Googlebot when it comes to visit. Is this file useful? What does it do? How do I create one? How do I get Google to find it? Well, let me tell you.

Firstly, the general consensus on whether or not a Google Sitemap is useful is that, well, the jury is still out. The official stance from Google is that this entire program is in Beta so there are no promises or guarantees. Perhaps by understanding what this file is for we can infer its usefulness.

A Google Sitemap is, essentially, an XML file that contains information on all the web pages in your site. You create this file, submit it to Google, and Google will read it. What Google does from there nobody really knows. You can specify certain parameters in the file such as the location (URL) of your web pages, when they were last modified, how often the pages are updated, and what each page’s “priority” is.

Perhaps Google is relegating these Sitemap submitted results to a secondary index where they compare the results to their live index. This might let them know how people use (and abuse) the program. It is my opinion that the vast majority of participants in this program are website designers and marketers who are trying to give their clients a teenie-weenie leg up on the competition within Google. That’s not to say that there isn’t any value, though.

It is possible that by telling Google where all of your web pages are you can improve your web page saturation in their index. This may indirectly improve your rankings by getting an unlinked or deeply linked page into the index that wasn’t previously there. But as I mentioned earlier, it’s difficult to know if Google is even using Sitemap information in their live index.

So now that you’ve decided that you want to create and submit a Sitemap of your own, here’s how:

1. Firstly, you need to create your XML file. Don’t bother doing it yourself. There is an excellent free online utility at www.sitemapbuilder.net.
2. You must now submit the Sitemap to Google. Visit www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login and login with your Google account. Don’t have one? Don’t worry - that’s free, too. Once you’ve logged in you can add as many Sitemaps as you like.
3. Don’t forget - whenever you update your website (by adding, removing or relocating web pages) be sure to repeat this process. You won’t need to resubmit your sitemap to Google, though.

Google is also touting their Mobile Sitemap program. This one, I believe, may be of greater significance. I believe that Google is building an index of mobile-phone friendly websites (Mobile Web Search Beta) and they are using these new Mobile Sitemaps as a way to get the public to help them seed the initial directory. The mobile web is in its infancy right now, so it wouldn’t surprise me if creating a Mobile Sitemap gave mobile sites a significant leg up. But again; no guarantees here - just opinion. Happy Sitemapping everyone!

Web browsers can be defined in two ways:

1) Web browsers provide an avenue for you to display your website to others around the world.

2) Web browsers provide an avenue for end Internet users to view websites. So, whether you’re a designer or an end user, you’ll find that Web browsers are necessary in everyday operations.

How do Web Browsers Work?

When you design your web pages, you’ll use a programming language or special program such as HTML, XTML, PHP, FLASH, MYSQL, or some other technique. Web browsers will look at your web page codes and translate them into readable, pleasant-looking pages for the end user. Instead of “jibberish” your visitors should see a well-designed web page. If all they see is the code, you can forget selling anything or getting your point across!

Example:If you type the HTML code into your web page for the word “HELLO” in bold print, the code looks like this (minus the asterisks): **<b>HELLO</b>** Your end user will see this: HELLOThe Web browser took the “bold” HTML code you created and translated into a visible design function. How does it do this? We’ll leave that to the computer techies!

Popular Web Browsers*Internet Explorer (IE): Microsoft’s Web browser - the most popular today. It was released in 1995 and surpassed Netscape in popularity in 1998.*Netscape: This was the first commercial Web browser, released in 1994.

*Firefox: A new browser that was released in place of Netscape following the Netscape 7.2 version. It is based on Mozilla and is the second most popular Web browser on the WWW.

*Opera: A Norwegian Web browser used for small devices such as Palm Pilot computers or cell phones with online access.

Check it Out!

Before you begin promoting your website, check it out on each of the browsers mentioned above to be sure others see your web pages the way you want them to see it. Look for “scroll” across bars at the bottom of your web pages to be sure the page size is not too large. Check your graphics, page loading time and the overall layout of your web pages. One browser might show your website one way while another is total opposite. It’s better to be safe than sorry later. You can lose a lot of business if hundreds or thousands of people are unable to view your website correctly.

By: Jason OConnor

I believe some people create and publish websites for the sole purpose of tormenting their visitors. Browsing various websites and navigating the Web can often be like trying to read on an airplane while a kid kicks the back of your seat and the baby next to you alternates between screaming, crying and drooling on you. There are some excellent websites out there to be sure, but there are also a lot of dreadful ones too. The latter are the bane of so many people’s existence, especially those who use the Web regularly.

The Net continues to grow in popularity and importance for consumers and businesses alike. Therefore, the quality of sites needs to keep pace. Creating and maintaining high-quality websites is more important now than ever. Higher quality equals more revenue.

The following lists the top ten ways that a website misses the boat and contributes to hair loss and nervous breakdowns. Notice the common thread that runs throughout each of these. Namely, a bad website neglects to consider the site visitor’s experience in some fundamental ways.

1. Animation
Seven year-olds like watching animated cartoons on Saturday morning, business people, professionals and most other adults don’t. Sites that include showy Flash animations as an ‘Intro’, animated gifs on every page, or flying words are really annoying. They take away from the content and distract the visitor from achieving their goals. Unless your site is an entertainment site, try to avoid maddening motion. However, if your product or service can be better demonstrated using Flash, Quick Time, or other multimedia, which is common, offer your visitors the chance to click a link to view it. But don’t force them.

2. Too much scrolling
Once I scroll down a full screen’s worth, my eyes start to blur, I feel slightly lost, my head spins and my interest wanes. Computer monitors really aren’t the best medium for reading. The Net and many sites are so big that it’s important to always provide a clear frame of reference for your visitors at all times while they’re on your site. If a page requires two full screens of scrolling or more, simply split it up into multiple pages.

3. Long, text-heavy and blocky paragraphs of unbroken text
I really have to be into a topic or desperately need to glean the information to trudge through big chunks of unbroken text online. If I’m just shopping around for a product or service, you’ve lost me if I have to endure this kind of torture. Again, it is harder to read text on the Web than in other mediums such as books. Additionally, Web users are notoriously impatient, so make your content easy to read and non-intimidating. Use titles, sub-titles, small paragraphs, bullets and numbering.

4. No obvious ways to contact the company
If all you supply is an email on your website, your legitimacy may be questioned. Why can’t you answer the phone? Why hide behind an anonymous and cold email address? Make it easy for your existing and potential customers to talk with you.

5. Unchanging or out-dated content
If I start reading content on a site and soon discover that the content was written three years ago, I split. Since there’s so much information out there, my reasoning is there’s got to be comparable information online that’s more current. If you keep your content fresh your site will attract repeat visitors. And repeat visitors are more likely to turn into customers.

6. Long page downloads
It’s amazing that this is still a problem. When I click on to a site and have to sit there waiting for it to appear in my browser, I start sweating, picking my teeth, tapping my toes, rolling my eyes and soon want to throw my computer through my office window. I’m obviously a little impatient, but again, I know there are other sites out there with the same information that will download more quickly, so why wait? I’m gone.

7. “Me, me, me!” instead of “You, you, you”
Generally speaking, no one cares about you, your company or your thoughts. What they do care about is what you can do for them. So sites that show pictures of the company building or tout their deep philosophy on the way business should be conducted really don’t bode well for keeping the interest of site visitors. On the other hand, sites that speak directly to potential customers about how they can solve their problems, make their lives easier, safer, richer or more comfortable have a much better chance of keeping the eyeballs glued.

8. Non-explanatory buttons or links
Here are some examples of buttons that leave me dazed and confused: A wedding site with a button called ‘Blanks’, a boating site with a button named ‘The Lighthouse’, a book site with a button called ‘The Inside Story’, or a Web design site with a button called ‘Tea Time’. They sound like Jeopardy categories. Imagine trying to find your way on a highway where its various signs read ‘Over Here’, ‘Moon Beams’, and ‘Lollypops’. Good luck navigating your way through. It’s the same with navigating websites. Button and link names need to tell the visitor where the link leads to. Make it as easy as possible for a visitor to know where they’re going before they click. However, there are times when naming a link an ambiguous name may pique the curiosity of a user and get them to click on it. But as a general rule, keep your links and buttons as descriptive as possible.

9. Inconsistent navigation
Imagine sitting down at a restaurant and the waiter comes over to you and hands you five different menus, one for the appetizers, one for the soups and salads, one for the entrees, one for the desserts, and one for the drinks. Annoying. Now imagine if each menu had a different format, layout and method for listing the items. Brutal. I really don’t want to work that hard at picking out my dinner, I’m hungry and I just want a meal. Don’t make your visitors work hard either by expecting them to re-learn your navigation system each time they enter another section of your site. They too are hungry; for useful information and they’re even more impatient.

10. Inconsistent look & feel
When the look & feel completely changes from one page to another in a website, I think I am visiting another site, another company, a partner or subsidiary. I get very confused. This screams poor planning and often results from tacking on new sections later after the original site was built. This can lead to design-drift. It may be tempting to stray from the original design; you may have a better design now. But wait till you do a complete next-generation re-design of the entire site before introducing a new look & feel. If not, lots of visitors will be scratching their heads with one hand and possibly clicking away with the other.

Finally, any site that employs a number of these notorious features is particularly painful to experience. When I click to a website that has five different fonts and colors, scrolls down to the core of the Earth, incorporates zinging words and big fat blocks of text, lists no phone number and has content written and dated in 1996, I scream and know deep down inside that pulling my fingernails out wouldn’t be as torturous as having to remain there a minute longer.

Author Bio
Jason O’Connor is president of Oak Web Works, LLC www.oakwebworks.com where you can get a free webmaster newsletter and read many other original Web design and marketing articles.

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