The Importance of a Well Thought Out Website Design By: Aaron Howard When going to a job interview you want to look your best. How you look is a reflection of who you are. The same goes for your website. You are going to want a website design that shows exactly what your business is about. If your site looks sloppy and poorly designed, no one is going to stay long resulting in a loss of sales. With simple planning ahead, you can create a page that is full of information, looks great, and hooks your clients. Create a site that is visually appealing. Be sure to use your business logo in the layout and use colors that are attractive and aren't hard to look at. Something like red writing on a blue background isn't very complimentary and can irritate people's eyes. If it's hard to read, why would someone stay on the site? Go with colors that are inviting and professional. This is important for your whole layout. Pick something that looks nice and stick with it on all of yours pages. Use photos that are relevant to your business, whether they're photos you've taken specifically for the site or if you're using stock images. As important as images are, you will need to be sure to not go overboard. There is a line between what looks balanced and what looks like a cluttered mess. Navigation is a key piece to any great website design. Most sites have a navigation bar that users can access no matter what page they're on. It breaks down what the different pages are and gives people an easy way to get there. Try to avoid being too creative with how the navigation bar and buttons look and be sure they're well labeled. If things aren't labeled it can cause confusion and deter users. Another thing to think about is how your site comes up in search engines. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a big market. It's used to create a dynamic site that through use of keywords, HTML meta tags, back-linking, and other "invisible" work, search engines find and rate your page. The better this is applied to your site, the higher your search rating will be, which means more visitors to your page and potentially, higher sales. Building your site can seem like a daunting task when really it's not. Take the information you have about your business and put it into action. Create something that's appealing to customers, is user friendly, and will boost your ratings. A great website design means even greater business for you.