Your first task is to create a navigation system for your website that is easy to understand and consistent.



In place of tabs used by sites such as Amazon.com, you can use underlined text to create an easy format that anticipates your customers need.

Say you are creating a web site that sells ink for printers. A customer visiting such a site would only be interested in finding the ink that is used with their printer. A good navigation system should be designed so that visitors can find the brand and model of their printer and the ink cartrigde used with their printer quickly and easily.

The navigation system should not be extravagant. Vertical or horizontal formats for basic text links are very effective, as are buttons, or organized tabs.

Your website should immediately broadcast the feel and main theme throught its design. This is much more of a subjective, artistic. There is not set formula to follow.

One thing to keep in mind with creating the feel of your website is successful sites convery their purpose. So CBS should convey NEWS and Disney should convey FUN. You may triple your conversion rates by creating the correct feel for your website.

Government buildings seem institutional for a reason. That is the function they serve. Your website's theme should be automatically known by the look of your website - the layout and design.

As the saying goes 'it is the little foxes that spoil the grapes.' Be careful that the overall appearance of your website is not spoiled by those 'little foxes'.

It is also true that 'little foxes' can also ruin the look of professionalism of you website. Typical errors in webdesign and how to correct them to raise your conversion rates are as follows:

a) If you use a site stats counter, do not allow it to be viewable by visitors.

You may want to show how popular your site is, but this may make you look outdated, and may have a contradictory effect.

b) Keep in mind how your site will look when printed. There are a number of people who prefer to print long pages of text and read them from a print out rather than from the screen. Having a 'printable' version of the sites pages accommodates such users.

c) Assess whether or not your webdesign is 'scannable.'

Most web users will quickly scan your site before making up their mind whether or not to read it. This means your need to highlight the key points of your website through use of techniques such as bold, color and underlined text and clear useful headings.

d) Large header graphics should not be large and detract from the topfold of your page's message. Your visitors see the 'topfold' of your Home page before scrolling down. Large graphics will take up too much space and reduce the room for your key message.

Using these webdesign secrets right away may surprise you just how effective such simple changes can be. Watch as your websites conversion rates soar higher.