The last post I made about website designs tips was referring to the initial things needed before starting a website. Domain names, Website Hosting , and Content. To be sure, many already have that taken care of. However many people want to understand the basics before moving on.
This post will focus on a few things that will help make the website development process more fruitful and less painful.
I hear it all too often from other developers that they are approached to start a website development project and they get the project started but then development halts because of there not being any content to apply to the site or that the site plan is very sparse.
If you are having trouble coming up with content there are content writing services that specialize in this type of thing. I have been approached by several writes that are looking to assist with these services so let me know and I can connect you. That is the easy route. Alternatively you can always do a search on your competition and analyze their web presence to get ideas. You by no means want to copy their content verbatim. This will lead to getting your website penalized or even banned by many Search Engines. Why? Because the search engines have a vested interest in getting their customers the best content possible. You dont have to take my word for it just search the term: effects of duplicate website content. So quality fresh content is a great idea. You can get valuable ideas from your contemporaries by reviewing their information , and taking notes. I like to look at the best that I know of. You can also get excellent site structure ideas this way.
Site structure is basically your information architecture . Interface designers will often use wire frames diagrams to setup how a sites flow might be setup. This is a critical step the setup and design of a website. The flow of information should be fairly logical or else it can frustrate and confuse you visitors. Larger sites , those with more pages , can utilize drop down menus to arrange information strategically so that information is easy to find and where one might expect. For examples – Links under the about menu could include > Contact Information > Biography > Location (s) > Mission Etc…
Arranging information this way will make it easy for your users to find what they need without utilizing a search function. On this note a site map is always a great idea since it can act as a central link location where all of the pages on your site can be found.
You may have heard that content is king. Get the content on your site that your users are looking for and make it easy for them to find and they will appreciate your efforts. It would be nice if many of software applications would do the same thing…
Cheers
Dwayne
