Website Value

06/10/2021 13:51

To start with, better Web sites usually have more images. For example, they tend to have button bars at the top of each page, to brand the site and to aid in navigation. And instead of displaying

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in screen text, they often display as gifs. Text rendered as a gif can be antialiased, meaning you don't see jagged edges. You can use any font, not just whatever the browser has, and you can also get 3D effects like bevelled edges and drop shadows, which (used sparingly) make a site look richer.

When I say that better sites use more images, I do not mean that they use more k of images. Big images take a long time to download, and that is the kiss of death in an online store. In a top-quality site, images are the seasoning, not the foundation of the site. Use small, punchy images that will carry a lot of the surrounding area.

In particular, avoid the common mistake of putting a huge image on your front page. By all means put your logo on the front page, and in fact on every page, but make it download fast. Your logo is not what your customers came to see.

They came to see your products. But don't throw full-size product images at your visitors until they ask for them. Sophisticated sites begin with a page of smaller thumbnail images, which visitors can click on when they want to see more.

If you don't use thumbnail images, your section pages will be too slow.

Make your product images as high quality as possible. Consumers won't buy from an image that looks like a badly lit polaroid. So have a professional photographer take your photos. Images shot with a top-quality digital camera look brightest, but you can also scan transparencies or even scan images right out of your print catalog.

If possible, try to make the background color for the product images either the same color as your pages, or transparent. Product shots look better when the object seems to sit right on the page.

Finally, don't make spelling mistakes in your site. A few of those will undo all the other work you've done to make your site look professional.