When it comes to your website design, never compromise efficiency for a beautiful design. Most amateurs and professional webmasters belief that the more visual and audio aids they use on their website, which means slower loading time, the better it is for the visitor, when it isn’t so.

Here are five important website design rules of thumb to observe which should ensure your website performs well.

1) For peak performance, do not include splash pages

Splash pages makes up the first impression people have of a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like ‘welcome’ or ‘click here to enter’. These are merely distractions that can divert attention away from the purpose of your website. Visitors will be more likely to leave your first page without waiting for the exceptionally slow loading time due to the heavy graphics used.

2) Use banners sparingly

These are usually large adverts placed at the top of the web page but can also be at the bottom too. Adding banner ads are actually futile efforts to maximize the use of your website as space research shows that people tend to ignore such advertisements. There is a better way to add contents instead of using banner is by giving them useful information and then add their affiliate links so that they would seem natural.

3) Always make it easy to navigate

You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it.

Avoid the use of flash menus or multi-tiered menus because generally they are not a good idea as far as easy navigation is concerned. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site. The best method to avoid this problem is to construct a sitemap as part of your website design that shows, and links, to every page in your site.

4) A clear indication of where the user is at the moment is good to assist navigation

You will want to help your users feel in control by giving them a clear view of where they are at your website. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. This can easily be achieved by ensuring each page has a title and a textual ‘breadcrumb trail’ that clearly shows the links they have made to get where they are now. Remember, any form of ambiguity or confusion will drive your hard earned visitors away.

5) Do think carefully about the use of audio in the site

If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on at your website. One can get irritated by continuous sounds being played over and over again. It may be a cool thing to include some music but do give your users some form of control such as muting ability or volume control. If you wish for the visitors to return to your site, learn to apply all these website design rules and you can reap the benefits of long term traffic.

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