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Increase
Sales with Easy-To-Read Web Pages
Copyright ©
2005-2008 Leva Duell
Make
sure you've made it easy for visitors to read your web pages.
Web pages with readable text will generate more sales than fancy
pages that are hard to read. Follow these design tips. Not only
will your web pages be easier to read, but you'll keep potential
buyers at your site and position yourself to increase sales.
Keep
Pages Short -- Especially Your Home Page
- Put important
content at the top of your pages so it's visible on the screen.
Users may not scroll through lengthy pages.
- In general,
limit the length of a web page to two screens.
- Split
up long pages into several pages.
Layout
- Use left
aligned text rather than justified text.
- Write
short paragraphs (4-5 lines).
- Limit
the width of your web pages to fit your visitors' monitors.
Your visitors dont want to scroll left to right to see
your content or reach navigation buttons.
- Keep
the look, layout, navigation, typefaces, and colors consistent
on all your pages.
Break
up Copy
- Avoid
long pages of text.
- Indent
paragraphs in sales letters.
- Break
up text with white space, color, columns, lines, and graphics.
- Break
up copy into easy-to-read sections
- Use subheadings
and bulleted lists to highlight benefits.
Color
and Contrast
- Use color
sparingly. Too much color can be distracting.
- Select
a background color that contrasts with the text color.
- Avoid
blue backgrounds when using blue links (the standard link
color).
- Avoid
dark backgrounds. Dark text on a light background (white to
light pastel) is easy to read.
- Avoid
text on multi-colored background images. Most background images
will decrease the readability of your text.
- Use web-friendly
colors. Colors that look bright on your monitor may appear
dark on someone elses and make your message unreadable.
Typography
- Avoid
small type, reverse type (white text on dark background),
and italics.
- Avoid
using UPPER CASE in your body copy.
- Limit
the number of fonts in a web site to a maximum of three.
- Use a
type size that is geared to your target audience. For instance,
use larger type for older readers.
- Emphasize
important words, headlines, and sentences by using color,
bold, and different text sizes. But do so sparingly. Too much
bold or color reduces the impact.
- Avoid
underlining. Readers might think your underlined words or
sentences are links.
- Use standard
fonts.If youre using fonts your viewers dont have
on their computers, their browsers will show substitute fonts
and your web pages can look totally different on visitors'
computers than how you intended them to look. You can avoid
this by using fonts most people have, such as Arial, Times
New Roman, and Verdana. These fonts are also easy to read
on computer screens.
- If you
want viewers to see a special font, you must convert the text
into a graphic.
- Avoid
special characters like curly quotes, curly apostrophes, n-dashes,
and m-dashes. These characters are unique to different operating
systems and may convert into bogus characters in web sites.
To avoid this, use a text editor such as Notepad (Windows)
or SimpleText (Mac) and check your pages on several operating
systems.
Images
and Graphics
- Use images
and graphics that support your sales message.
- Keep
animation, blinking text, and scrolling text to a minimum.
They distract the reader from focusing on your text.
Check Your
Pages
Web
pages may look different on your visitors' computers, depending
on their computer, monitor, browser, and fonts. What may look
great with one browser may look unprofessional on another. View
your web pages with different
browsers, computers, platforms (PC and Mac), screen resolutions,
and settings. Statistics indicate that visitors use a wide variety
of browsers and platforms.
Keep
visitors, prospects, and buyers at your site with easy-to-read,
interesting content. An easy-to-read, professional web site
can maximize your sales. Apply these techniques now.
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