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Keep Your Navigation Consistent!
One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation is consistency. Why? There's a simple reason. Visitors want familiarity. They are more comfortable and more trusting if they know things are going to remain the same from page to page. They have a certain sense of confidence from knowing what to expect. If a visitor can quickly become familiar with your navigation, it's much simpler to actually navigate. And of course, that's the whole purpose of navigation, right? Besides familiarity, there's a second reason to be consistent. It helps your credibility. Consistency in your navigation helps you present a unified, cohesive image to your visitors. In other words, you look polished, well-thought-out, and on top of things. Your visitors get the impression that you "have it together". On the other hand, if your navigation is inconsistent, it reflects badly on you and your company. You'll look disorganized and unprofessional. Here are 3 ways to maintain consistency in your navigation: 1. Use global navigation (which is a set of your main links that appears on every page of your site in the same place). Global navigation is an absolute necessity. It ensures that visitors can always get to the main sections of your website quickly and easily. Global navigation options must be the same on every page. Many sites resoundingly fail in this area. Often, the order of the links varies from page to page, or some links are missing on certain pages. This confuses even experienced web users. 2. Keep the appearance and placement of buttons and secondary links the same throughout the site. I recently ran across a site that used three completely different styles of buttons in as many pages. This variation blew any unified appearance they hoped to have. It also made it hard to recognize which graphics were links and which were not, since there was no consistently-used symbol for "clickability". On another site, secondary navigation options were on the left on some pages and on the right on other pages. That's a no-no. Visitors will never be sure where to look for additional options, particularly since this site was visually busy. Don't move links around from page to page. Link colors, button styles, fonts, and placement should be the same throughout the site. The goal should be for visitors to instantly recognize a link when they see it. 3. Stick with conventional design standards. In addition to being consistent within your site, you also need to be consistent with other sites. Don't get too far out on the fringe in trying new things. If you use a navigation scheme that's completely different from what you see on most other sites, visitors will likely be confused. Make your navigation look and function like something visitors will be familiar with from other sites. About The Author There are 605.6 million people online. Can they find your business? Jamie Kiley creates powerful and engaging websites that make sure YOUR company gets noticed. Visit http://www.kianta.com for a free quote. Get a quick, free web design tip every two weeks--sign up for Jamie's newsletter: http://www.kianta.com/newsletter.php
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Do-It-Yourself Web Design for Home-Based Businesses Home-based businesses need a strong web presence to combat the inflated advertising and marketing budgets of their larger competitors, but establishing that presence through a professionally designed and developed web site may not be an affordable option. In many cases, the only cost-effective way to get the web site you want for your business is to do it yourself. When You Create A Web Site, Dont Make A Splash! Don't make a splash!Are you thinking about using a splash page when you create a web site? You would be wise to think again.What is a splash page?Generally, it is a fancy entrance graphic which requires your visitor to click in order to enter the main home page of your web site. Branding Web Strategy Mistakes - Brand Identity Guru 1. Lack of overall strategy and clear definition of success:Most people realize the need for a site, but don't understand what it can/should do for the company. How to Choose Web Design Company? Before deciding on which web design company to choose, you should first determine the main aim and purpose for your upcoming website. Once the aim and purpose have been identified, then only move on to choose a reliable web design company to develop your website. Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have very long pages. Why is that do you think? Well, it appears that long, scrolling, web pages lead to more sales than short pages. Imitation, The Smartest Form Of Flattery Unless you are an inventor, most likely you are selling a product or service that is being offered by someone else, somewhere, at some time. The first person to start your type of business would have gone through a lot of trial and error. Creating Personal Web Sites (Part 2) This is the second part of a two-part article about creating a web site on the Internet and the tools that you will need to do it.Some basic terminology that you should take a look at before proceeding further:Web Page: A document that contains information created with the help of HTML. How to Test Your Web Headlines and Web Site Home Page to Sell More Products and Services A client asked me, at what point do you change your Web site when not making enough sales? My answer? Within a month because as long as your ad copy is weak, those weak sales numbers will continue.Your coach is number one on Google and 35 other search engines with the key words, "book coaching. Save Time and Boost Profits with Free Content Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses, newsletters, teleconferences, website content and email registration incentives you need to keep in constant touch with clients and prospects.Public domain refers to information free from copyright protection. 3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the internet it always pays dividends to look at the website itself and get the fundamentals right before looking to shout about it from the virtual mountain-tops.You may already have thought about the following 3 ways and some of you may already have them in place on your website. Your Website Hurts My Eyes: 7 Reasons to Tone Down Your Advertising So you're on the computer, as usual. Your eyes are smarting. Colorblind People, Can They Really Read Your Web Site? I once created a notepad-like editor. It is possible with this editor to write Russian text on a western Windows without using a Cyrillic keyboard in front of your computer. Website Design: Color Me Blue Chris, a new consulting client, asked me to help him increase sales on his affiliate marketing site.As he was describing his site and the problem, I thought, "This is going to be a quick fix. Website promotion Ideas: 10 Web Site Add-Ons To Increase Your Traffic If you're not getting a lot of traffic to your website anymore, must implement these Website promotion ideas immediately.1. Basic Graphic Design Wether you design your business brochures, flyers, web page, or ads there are some things that you need to know. There are some basic graphic design principles that those of us trained in the commercial art/graphic design field don't always share. Affordable Website Design In Manchester If you have a business, big or small you may be thinking of getting yourself a website.The world wide web is another way of spreading your message or selling your product. Very Cheap Website Design Services Are you looking for somebody to build you a website, however do not have a very large budget? This is the position many people find themselves in and are on the lookout for very cheap web design services.There are companies out there or people who are just starting out in a career building websites who to start with will often offer their services at a very reasonable rate, basically to build up a portfolio. Design Your Site For Your Customers The most important person that you need to please when you design your site is your potential customer. I can not stress that enough. Does Your Homepage Work? All websites have a homepage. It is the most important page of your site. 10 Ways to Sabotage Your Website Traffic and Send Visitors Packing If you're running a website or online business, your number one goal should be to build traffic. The following are ten ways to drive traffic away from your site.
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