Design a Home Business Website
If you’d like to design a home business website, deciding what type of website to create can be confusing.
You will basically have two choices – develop a sales site or a content site. A sales site is simply a store in which you display your products and enable your visitors to purchase. Content sites are different as they aren’t direct sales sites. Content sites sell by educating visitors and then introducing your products or services to further assist them.
Once you have decided on the type of site you’d like to develop, you can then design your site around the products. The important thing to remember is that every part of your website should have one specific purpose – to get your potential customers to purchase your products.
Let’s look at some of the key components of a quality website.
Your Store Front
Although the main page of a personal website is known as a home page, the main page of a sales site is known as the storefront.
It is very important that your storefront loads as quickly as possible when a potential customer arrives at your website. It should also give the visitor a good idea as to exactly what you’re offering.
When designing your storefront, less is more. Instead of trying to place all of your information within your main page, create sections for each type of information. You can then include a small sample of the information within each section and then link to additional information on separate pages.
To keep your web page load time down, avoid using large or too many graphics, animations, special effects, and large page sizes. If your web page takes too long to load, your visitors certainly won’t waste much time waiting. This will result in lost sales.
Website Enhancement
There are many ways you can enhance your website without using a lot of graphics. For example, you can use special ASCII Character Codes to add colored bullets to your links and many other characters. In addition, you can use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to add color to your pages in many ways, such as highlighting, background colors, and section dividers.
A good rule of thumb in regard to graphics is if they don’t somehow enhance your page, it’s best to not include them.
Screen Resolutions
When designing your web pages, it is very important that you test the pages to see how they look in different screen resolutions (visit AnyBrowser). The resolution is determined by the number of pixels the monitor is capable of displaying. Not all monitors are created equal, and your page needs to look good when viewed with different monitors and browsers.
Website Design Layouts
Another consideration when you design a home business website is your site’s layout. There are basically four types of layouts to consider:
Fixed: A fixed website design uses a specific width that doesn’t change when viewed with different screen sizes and devices. And, although this is a simple and easy way to get a website up, it isn’t recommended as it doesn’t display well when viewed through smaller screen sizes.
Adaptive: An adaptive website design uses media queries to detect and display a website according to the device size (monitor, cell phone, tablet, etc.). This type of design requires you to create different versions of a website.
Fluid: A fluid website design uses percentages for widths which enables a website to scale up or down according to the screen size.
Responsive: A responsive website design enables a website to display properly in a variety of different screen sizes by resizing and adjusting the layout according to the browser or device. This is the preferred design layout by many including Google.
Navigation
A very important part of designing a great website is the navigation. If your customers can’t easily navigate your site, and they can’t find your products, you won’t be making many sales. Place your navigational links at the top, side, and bottom of your web pages.
Website Background and Text Colors
When selecting your web page colors, it is very important that you select your colors very carefully. Colors can affect your mood and will also have an effect on your visitors.
A great way to select your colors is to do so based upon the type of effect you’d like to achieve. For example, if you’re looking for a cheerful or happy effect, use bright colors, such as orange or yellow. If you’d like a calming effect, use purple or blue. However, dark colors, such as black and brown may have a depressing effect and should probably be avoided.
Although you may be tempted to use fancy backgrounds and colored text, this makes the text very difficult to read and should be avoided. It is always best to use a white background with black text. However, there are a few exceptions to using text colors, such as headings, sub-headings and emphasizing certain words.
Take some time to educate yourself about web design, Search Engine Optimization, and Internet marketing prior to developing your website, as each will play an important part in your success.
The most important thing to remember when you design a home business website is that your site’s main focus must be your product. Every part of your website should have one specific purchase – to lead your visitors to your sales page.