The most important thing in a website design is to ensure that it does what it was designed to do.

The biggest mistake one can make when designing a website is to include too many fancy graphic works and flash files that needs endless minutes loading them for display.

Let us discuss what makes up a good website design.

1) Don’t use splash pages.

The splash pages are the fancy pages you see when you enter a website. These are elaborately fancy pages with lavish designs and images along with words such as ‘welcome to our website’ usually, they are pages of elaborate graphics that includes words such as ‘welcome’ or ‘click here to enter the site’. These are merely distractions that can divert attention away from the purpose of your website. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the ‘back’ button!

2) Overuse of banner advertisements is a big mistake

Although these can be at the foot of a web page, adverts like this are primarily placed right at the top of the page in what is called the ‘header’. 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. The best way to utilize web space would be to use good contents and weave your affiliate links into them so that the users would not feel coerced into buying.

3) Maintain a simple and clear navigation

Navigation should be made very simple so that even a young child can understand. Do not use any form of menus that will complicate users, drop downs and multi-tiers are not a good idea. Any form of complicated navigation will cause them to leave your site for good. Have a sitemap added to the website design to help them find what they are looking for.

4) There should be a clear indicator showing where the user is currently on the website

You will need to have a sitemap to facilitate the user to be in control. This map will help them get to where they want to be without wasting too much time.

When each link that has been visited is marked in some way form the ones that are fresh, visitors can easily know which is fresh and which is fresh and which is not. If you create any form of confusion, you will drive the visitors away.

5) Audios are a bad idea

To make your visitors stay longer, avoid the use of excessive music. A sound file should not be played continuously it can be irritating on the user. If adding audios seems like a good idea to you, do make sure you provide some form of control such as muting or volume control so that your visitors can adapt to their surroundings. 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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