by Scott Hughes
Make a good website layout by keeping it simple.
Many webmasters seem to think that flashiness, complexity, and uniqueness make a good website. They couldn’t be more wrong. The key to designing a good website is simplicity.
The customers want simplicity:
Customers and surfers do NOT surf websites to see webmasters flex their ability at making flashy sites. Customers and surfers search the web to find information, products, & services. These surfers want convenience, speed and quality. They do not want to be bothered with pointless showoffs. Keep the layout simple so the customers can find what they’re looking for. Keep the delivery simple and direct, or else your customers will get it elsewhere.
The search engines want simplicity:
I’ve often seen webmasters who have websites filled with animations, videos, audio, and flash. Perhaps these methods can be used sparingly to increase the quality of the surfers’ experiences, but search engines can’t read movies, audio, and other multimedia. For example, if a webmaster builds a site in only Flash, that site will probably never receive traffic from search engines. You not only will waste your customers’ time with too much showiness, but you’ll lose traffic.
Web Browsers want simplicity:
Another huge downfall to using complex programming, showiness, and multimedia is browser incompatibility. Many customers with older browsers, higher security, or slower connections cannot watch or hear animations, audio, and video. Even out of the customers with compatible browsers, many will not wait for your multimedia to load. As a webmaster, you’re greatest fear should be the browser back button. A slow loading page due to complex flashiness is a great way to cause surfers to click that back button.
Although in moderation a special object such as a complex program, audio file or video may make surfers experience a little better, generally it causes more harm than good. Make your site a little snazzy, but keep most of the site focused on the actual point of your website.
About The Author: Scott Hughes creates and runs many successful e-businesses. Read more articles like this on his website, Web Business Resource, at http://www.webbizresource.com/.
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August 23rd, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Scott, your completely spot on with this article. The majority of people who contact me for web design want a flash site which do not understand they will get little exposure in the search engines. Also, visitors to sites easily get distracted by such methods or will end up clicking away if they’re on a slow connection & it takes a while to load. Simplicity wins every time.