"The deadly dozen Part 11 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 11 Flash Animation

Flash animation can be great, when used sparingly and correctly, if you want a flash intro, then it must be quick and also convey some information.

Navigation must also be on this page to enable people to move on if they wish, don’t just have a splash screen with an enter site here button, visitors do not know if they are in the right place if you tell them nothing!

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 10 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 10 Page Layout

Layout of the pages should be clean and clear, following a similar pattern and style across all you pages.

Do not use too many columns, 2 or 3 max.

Each page should have a focal point for main content.

All this quickly leads to your visitor being comfortable and feeling at home on your site.

The quicker this happens the longer someone will stay, if however they have to keep looking on the page to find the key information they want, they will soon get frustrated and leave.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 9 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 9 Sounds Effects & Music

Sound effects and ‘lift music’ playing on a web site are a real turn off, most of us enjoy listening to some sort of music, but we like to choose the type we like.

We do not want to be subjected to someone else’s choice, as it may be far removed from our own.

We also visited the web site for a specific purpose, to read some information which requires us to concentrate on the task in hand not be distracted by someone else’s noise in our own home or office.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 8 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 8 Pop Up Windows

Pop up windows should be used very sparingly, if at all.

Pop up windows do exactly what they say, they pop up and cover the content your visitor has come to see.

This can be very aggravating and we are trying very hard across all areas of your website not to aggravate and thus turn off and loose your valuable visitors and potential customers.

.....to be continued

"The deadly dozen Part 7 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No. 7 Font Styles

Font Styles are another key area to making the site easy to use and comfortable for your visitors.

There are many font choices now available to add to the confusion and decision making process, but the choices are really very simple and few.

Think about newspapers, magazines and books all are of a similar font type very often Times New Roman as this prints well, however it is not the ideal choice for use on websites.

Text is much fuzzier on a web page than on a printed page and Times New Roman is fuzzy on the web, this means it is more difficult for your visitors to read, they read more slowly and get frustrated more quickly, perhaps even leaving.

If you look at Image Connect’s site it is Verdana which is clear and easy to read even when zoomed in and out.

.....to be continued

Image Connect Now on Squidoo

I have just created my presence on Squidoo.

I have chosen to go by "Live Love Laugh Learn" because as a small business I find I do this most days and I hope that you will too when working with me at Image Connect.

So check out http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/livelovelaughlearn and enjoy.


About the Author
Vanessa Hodge is the owner of Image Connect, a web design, marketing and printing company for small businesses. You can read further articles, hints & tips and more at http://www.imageconnect.co.uk/

"The deadly dozen Part 6 - boost your business with these free hints and tips"

No 6. Text & Backgrounds

Text colour and background colour combinations are also critical, black, dark blue or similar on a white or light background or the reverse perhaps yellow or white on a black background may provide a better solution for the visually impaired.

.....to be continued