Know Your Audience
- A typical visitor will NOT read the entire content of your Web page! No matter how much useful information you put into a Web page, a visitor will only spend a few seconds scanning it before they decide whether to leave or to stay. Be sure to make your point in the very first sentence of the page! After that, try to keep the user occupied with short paragraphs, and new headers down the page.
- Less is More
Keep the paragraphs as short as possible. Keep the pages as short as possible. Keep the chapters as short as possible. Use a lot of space! Pages overloaded with text will kill your audience. If you have a lot to say, break your information into smaller chunks and place it on different pages!
- Navigation
Create a consistent navigation structure that is used by all the pages in your Web site. Don't use hyperlinks inside paragraphs, to send visitors to every page of your Web. This will destroy the feeling of a consistent navigation structure. If you must use hyperlinks, add them to the bottom of a paragraph, or to the menu.
- Download Speed
Sometimes developers are not aware of the fact that some pages take a long time to download. Most visitors will leave a Web page that takes more than 7 seconds to download. Test your web pages over a low-speed modem connection. If your pages take a long time to download, consider removing graphic or multimedia content.
- Let your Audience Speak!
Feedback is a very good thing! Your visitors are your "customers". Often they will give you some valuable hints about what you could have done better. Provide a simple way to reach you, and you will get a lot of input from people with different skills and knowledge.