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Make it Clear What Your Website is About


Just about every list of the "Top 10 Web Design Mistakes" includes at least one reference to either

1. Not clearly specifying the objectives of your website, or

2. Not making it obvious what your web pages are about.

Usually both of these things are mentioned. This usually stems from the inability to look at your business or products from the prospective customer's point of view.

Many marketing people confuse their own concerns with those of their potential customers. For instance they think that a sexy manufacturing technique, or the fact that the product uses "materials developed by NASA" will impress their customers. Generally it won't.

This is the classic mistake of confusing features with benefits. Saying that a vinyl banner is made of 13 oz vinyl is a feature. Saying that it is "virtually tear-proof" is a benefit -- namely, that it won't be ripped off its moorings and blown away by the first gentle breeze.

Web designers are just like all other business people in this regard. We have a difficult time stepping back from our little projects and looking at them from the perspective of our potential customers.

First and foremost we should realize that people who visit our sites have no idea what our sites are about until we tell them.

So we should tell them. And we should tell them very clearly and quickly. As Vincent Flanders says in Web Pages That Suck

Web design is the reverse of a magic trick. In a magic trick, you show the audience your right hand and perform the trick with your left. In Web design, you tell them where you're going first -- and then go there. People don't like surprises. It will certainly confuse them and it could make them angry."

Rick Hendershot is editor and publisher of the Linknet Marketing Resource Library.


More Web Design Articles

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The Secrets of The Shriekers
I am constantly bombarded with all sorts of advertisements, single-page sites, and sites offering very little real content but some wonderful new "product" or "service" for sale that purports to make its customers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.For the purposes of this article, let's refer to Amazing Formula (http://www.

How To Rescue Your Graphic Design Project When All Else Fails
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Positive Design Attributes for a Successful Website
Designing a website is hard job, and requires you to think out a plan of action, and put in a lot of work to make it successful. There are many different kinds of websites on the Internet, but if you look at all the top performers with high traffic, you will notice that they all have similar design characteristics which place them as the best in the world.

Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
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Make Artistic Graphic Designs
Are you a student of graphic design? If you have taken time in extra reviews and put ?graphic design? and ?drawing? into any search engines, you?ll get almost the same result = descriptions of graphic design programs at many design schools. Baffled? Well, it?s like this: As a student interested in graphic design, you have to take drawing and not actually a degree in fine art.

Creating Your First Website
Building your first website can be very frustrating. It looks fairly easy, but almost always turns out to be more complicated than you expected.

Ten Fatal Mistakes That Make Web Sites Stink
Since you?ll spend lots of time and money to create your web site, don?t you want to make sure you?re not making mistakes that at best irritate users, and at worst make you lose customers?After all, when you alienate users, you lose potential revenue. Who can afford that?Dr.

The Top 8 Website Sins Part Two
Sin #5Poor Spelling And GrammarWe all make mistakes when we write things down or type things out. Nobody is 100% perfect but a huge number of website owners completely ignore the basics of spelling and grammar.

The Top 8 Website Sins Part One
They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Your website then is the window to your business.




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