1. Building an Effective Website

2. Start with a plan  Have clear goal and design your entire site with those goals in mind.  Research and develop a sketch.

3. Write for the Web  Limit each page to a couple of screens worth of text.  Provide clearly marked links and don’t forget to spell and grammar check.

4. Keep it Simple  Stick with clean lines and clear design.  Stay away from:  blinking, flashing text  busy backgrounds  repetitive animations  garish graphics.

5. Keep it consistent  Every page in your site should look like it’s related to the other pages.  Fonts, graphics, colors, buttons and menus should be consistent.

6. Make it obvious  Visitors should be able to tell within a few seconds how your site works.  Make sure the buttons and structure of your site are intuitive.

7. Keep it small  Make your Website fast loading by keeping graphics, animations, video clips, and sounds to a minimum.  Optimize all pictures for the Web.

8. Offer contact information  Always provide an email address for contact.

9. Test before you publish  Have someone “test drive” your site.

10. Think before you publish  Don’t put anything on your Website you don’t want the world to see.

11. Keep it current  Keep your site up to date