What’s a recipe for a great web site?

Content is king

Content and copy will drive users to your web site. Providing information people might be searching for in your area of expertise and services is essential. It helps if your content is well organized, spelled correctly and employs proper grammar. Having a blog will add some new content, keeping your site fresh. Text should be in code, rather than in images, to help search engines index your content.

Usability

Clear navigation, readable text, good contrast, a logical flow… If you have a dark background on your site and a lot of white text over it in a small type size, consider that not all of your users will appreciate the additional eye strain this causes. Yellow type on a white background is also difficult for our eyes to process.

The text should not extend the entire width of the monitor if there is more than one line. A reader can easily lose track of which line comes next if they have to lose sight of one edge of the paragraph to see the other.

Responsive Design

A web site can appear nicely on all devices. By choosing a “responsive” theme, much of the heavy lifting is already coded in. Sometimes a little tweaking is still necessary. If the site was already built without being responsive, I can make it responsive.

A Good Domain Name

Because domain names have been around for awhile, the one you want might not be available. There are a lot of new extensions besides .com. However it is best to stay with .com, .net or .org – if you’re a school or government agency then you can use .edu or .gov. Not sure how all the new ones are going to play out – if they will be popular or not. Megabite can help you pick a domain name that works for you. Just please – to save yourself and everyone involved huge headaches in the long run – do not register with Network Solutions. Trust me on this one! Go with Godaddy.com, but only for domain registration. Click no thanks on all their upgrades.

Great design

Really good design is one of those sort of invisible things that is only obvious when it is missing. Bad design was put in the spotlight with a certain Florida election, where everyone learned what “chad” meant. The text and what you were supposed to do was not clear, which is a product of bad design. Ever fill in a form where there is simply not enough room for your full name or phone number? That is bad, or lazy design. Probably provided by a template.