How to Improve a Website
Make the website easy to navigate., Place your navigation links where they are easy for visitors to find., Design your navigation links so that they are easy to understand and organized according to importance., Use colors on your web pages that...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Make the website easy to navigate.
Make sure that your navigation is stress-free and everything functions consistently.
You may also want to add a search box if you don't already have one.
This saves your visitors a lot of time and doesn't take long to implement. -
Step 2: Place your navigation links where they are easy for visitors to find.
This includes places such as at the top of your web pages, in your sidebars, or at the bottom of your web pages. , For example, if your web pages feature products that your visitors can purchase, place the "checkout" link at the top of your web page so the link is displayed clearly to your visitors. , This will help encourage your visitors to spend time on your website; whereas if the colors of your background and text is too difficult to read, your visitors will most likely leave your website.
Use color combinations that are easy to read and view, such as black or blue text on a white background, as opposed to using bright or neon colors in your background or text. , This will help keep your readers engaged in your content and will maintain browser compatibility, as some browsers may not support fonts that are less common.
Use common font types such as Arial, Courier New, Georgia, Times New Roman, and Verdana as opposed to fonts such as Comic Sans, Papyrus, and fonts displayed in cursive. , Text that is separated into short paragraphs or made into bullets is more aesthetically pleasing to your visitors; as opposed to long paragraphs in a block-style format.
Publish text that makes up paragraphs that are comprised of no more than 3 or 4 sentences. , Minimize the number of images you use, and use images that contain simple designs and minimal colors.
If your web pages contain multiple animations or Adobe Flash effects, the pages will take a longer time to load. , Don't use too much Flash or large images that take too long to load. , Web servers can send the website files in a ‘compressed’ way that speeds up the page loading time, yet this doesn’t require any extra work from you besides turning it on.
See the server’s (usually Apache’s) website documentation for more info. , This will help you verify that your web pages load within 15 seconds.
These tools usually also provide great advice on optimizing the website.
You can find a variety of tools on the Internet by using keywords in the search engine such as "web page loading tool" or "check load speed of website."
Make sure your titles are brief, relevant to page content, and include your keywords.
Label your internal links and images with relevant titles and subtle keywords.
Tag your headers appropriately and include keywords in your H1 tags.
Remember not to optimize your website in an unappealing manner.
A clever webmaster can optimize without the reader recognizing the signs.
This would mean using keywords sparingly and in the most effective areas. , Since incoming links are the most important factor in SEO performance, it’s really important that other websites want to link to your website.
To make this appealing for them, you should consistently publish new, valuable information for other websites to link to. , Display the tagline for your business or website at the top of the web page, as well as prominent links for purchasing products or services.
As a 'bonus'
if your visitors are engaged or interested in the information they see when they first land on your web page, they will most likely scroll down to see additional content and continue to navigate through each web page. , An accurate headline that describes the topic or content of the web page will help intrigue and interest your visitors.
For example, if your website contains a page with sale or clearance items, use a bold headline such as "Clearance Items."
Include interesting images that break up the content, but don't inundate the visitor with them either.
Web pages should be limited because you don't want to overwhelm your visitors.
Avoid using too many frames, colors, font, and font sizes. , The content should increase traffic while meeting the needs of your visitors.
Content needs to be brief, but rich in information.
Web pages are harder to read than paper pages, so don't overwhelm your readers with excessive content on one page.
If you do have a lot to say about a subject, spread it out onto more than 1 page and break the sections up into 2
- 3 line paragraphs.
Keep your pages clean and crisp. , Examples of typical actions include allowing the visitors to:
Request another source of information Sign up for a newsletter Check out a related product
- then to buy it, or place an order Contact you , Sometimes the visitor should simply do something after visiting the website, such as going into one of the stores, or filling in a form.
Make sure to provide information to make this easy to do. , If the website is for a business, wherever you’ve provided information to the visitor and you’re not sure what action they’ll want to take after reading it, you should simply provide a link to your contact page. , This will help you verify that they display correctly; use browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and more.
Most browsers will recognize web pages that contain standard HTML and CSS code, however some (modern) code may not be recognizable by some browsers, which may cause your content to display inaccurately or appear unattractive.
Explore the topics of "graceful degradation" and "progressive enhancement" for these situations. , CSS media queries help you provide different styles for different devices or situations; make sure your website layout shows all the website content effectively for all 'media'. , These web tools can be found be entering keywords into a search engine such as "browser compatibility test." -
Step 3: Design your navigation links so that they are easy to understand and organized according to importance.
-
Step 4: Use colors on your web pages that make your text easy to read.
-
Step 5: Use a common font type on your web pages that is easy to read.
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Step 6: Break up text into short paragraphs or sub-categories.
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Step 7: Use only the best images.
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Step 8: Eliminate media that takes long to load.
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Step 9: Ensure that compression is turned on.
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Step 10: Use a free online tool or website that tests your webpage-loading time.
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Step 11: Focus on titles and keywords.
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Step 12: Create link-bait content.
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Step 13: Place the most important information at the top of your web pages.
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Step 14: Carefully word the web page title and headings of every web page.
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Step 15: Make the media content attractive.
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Step 16: Revise your volume of content.
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Step 17: Follow up your content with an action the visitor can take.
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Step 18: Suggest offline action.
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Step 19: Suggest contacting you when in doubt.
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Step 20: Test your web pages in the popular Internet browsers.
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Step 21: Use CSS code to make the layout responsive.
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Step 22: Use free web tools that analyze your web pages and checks their compatibility with all browsers.
Detailed Guide
Make sure that your navigation is stress-free and everything functions consistently.
You may also want to add a search box if you don't already have one.
This saves your visitors a lot of time and doesn't take long to implement.
This includes places such as at the top of your web pages, in your sidebars, or at the bottom of your web pages. , For example, if your web pages feature products that your visitors can purchase, place the "checkout" link at the top of your web page so the link is displayed clearly to your visitors. , This will help encourage your visitors to spend time on your website; whereas if the colors of your background and text is too difficult to read, your visitors will most likely leave your website.
Use color combinations that are easy to read and view, such as black or blue text on a white background, as opposed to using bright or neon colors in your background or text. , This will help keep your readers engaged in your content and will maintain browser compatibility, as some browsers may not support fonts that are less common.
Use common font types such as Arial, Courier New, Georgia, Times New Roman, and Verdana as opposed to fonts such as Comic Sans, Papyrus, and fonts displayed in cursive. , Text that is separated into short paragraphs or made into bullets is more aesthetically pleasing to your visitors; as opposed to long paragraphs in a block-style format.
Publish text that makes up paragraphs that are comprised of no more than 3 or 4 sentences. , Minimize the number of images you use, and use images that contain simple designs and minimal colors.
If your web pages contain multiple animations or Adobe Flash effects, the pages will take a longer time to load. , Don't use too much Flash or large images that take too long to load. , Web servers can send the website files in a ‘compressed’ way that speeds up the page loading time, yet this doesn’t require any extra work from you besides turning it on.
See the server’s (usually Apache’s) website documentation for more info. , This will help you verify that your web pages load within 15 seconds.
These tools usually also provide great advice on optimizing the website.
You can find a variety of tools on the Internet by using keywords in the search engine such as "web page loading tool" or "check load speed of website."
Make sure your titles are brief, relevant to page content, and include your keywords.
Label your internal links and images with relevant titles and subtle keywords.
Tag your headers appropriately and include keywords in your H1 tags.
Remember not to optimize your website in an unappealing manner.
A clever webmaster can optimize without the reader recognizing the signs.
This would mean using keywords sparingly and in the most effective areas. , Since incoming links are the most important factor in SEO performance, it’s really important that other websites want to link to your website.
To make this appealing for them, you should consistently publish new, valuable information for other websites to link to. , Display the tagline for your business or website at the top of the web page, as well as prominent links for purchasing products or services.
As a 'bonus'
if your visitors are engaged or interested in the information they see when they first land on your web page, they will most likely scroll down to see additional content and continue to navigate through each web page. , An accurate headline that describes the topic or content of the web page will help intrigue and interest your visitors.
For example, if your website contains a page with sale or clearance items, use a bold headline such as "Clearance Items."
Include interesting images that break up the content, but don't inundate the visitor with them either.
Web pages should be limited because you don't want to overwhelm your visitors.
Avoid using too many frames, colors, font, and font sizes. , The content should increase traffic while meeting the needs of your visitors.
Content needs to be brief, but rich in information.
Web pages are harder to read than paper pages, so don't overwhelm your readers with excessive content on one page.
If you do have a lot to say about a subject, spread it out onto more than 1 page and break the sections up into 2
- 3 line paragraphs.
Keep your pages clean and crisp. , Examples of typical actions include allowing the visitors to:
Request another source of information Sign up for a newsletter Check out a related product
- then to buy it, or place an order Contact you , Sometimes the visitor should simply do something after visiting the website, such as going into one of the stores, or filling in a form.
Make sure to provide information to make this easy to do. , If the website is for a business, wherever you’ve provided information to the visitor and you’re not sure what action they’ll want to take after reading it, you should simply provide a link to your contact page. , This will help you verify that they display correctly; use browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and more.
Most browsers will recognize web pages that contain standard HTML and CSS code, however some (modern) code may not be recognizable by some browsers, which may cause your content to display inaccurately or appear unattractive.
Explore the topics of "graceful degradation" and "progressive enhancement" for these situations. , CSS media queries help you provide different styles for different devices or situations; make sure your website layout shows all the website content effectively for all 'media'. , These web tools can be found be entering keywords into a search engine such as "browser compatibility test."
About the Author
Amber Nguyen
Committed to making creative arts accessible and understandable for everyone.
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