This article concentrates on the things
you should do when designing a website to add to the experience of the visitor and
make your site easier for him or her to use. This is important because each visitor
to your site is a potential customer and the more they enjoy their visit to your site
the more likely they are to buy from it. As with the don'ts of webdesign I have put
these do's of webdesign in a point by point format so they can be easily
read.

Do tell your visitors
what your site is about on the main page. This saves them time if they're not
interested in what your site offers and gives you the chance to use some keywords
when describing your site.

Do optimize every page
for the search engines by including keyword rich titles, keyword rich meta tags, a
keyword rich introduction to each page and by using heading tags around your most
important keywords wherever possible.

Do have a constant style
and navigation system on your website. If your style and navigation is not constant
then visitors will find it difficult to know if they're still on your website and may
just leave.

Do have an email address
or at least a "Contact us" link on every page. Make it easy for people to contact
you, if they've to search for an email address they'll become frustrated and probably
leave altogether.

Do link home on every
page. Not all users will enter your site via the home page, many will come through
other pages via the search engines and when they get there they will be stuck unless
you direct them back to the home page.

Do make navigation as
easy a possible, every page should be accessible via two links from the home page and
no more than three from any other page. This enables people to find what they want
quickly.

Do use alt text to
provide people with images turned off an idea of what your images are, also some
search engines index keywords inside the alt tag so including alt text may actually
help your rankings.

Do define height and
width in all tables and graphics as this aids download time. Nobody wants to wait an
eternity for a page to load so this is a must.

Do use space to break up
long pages of text as long paragraphs look unprofessional and are hard to read. If
something's hard to read people just won't bother reading it.

Using all or most of the
above when designing your website will surely enhance a persons visit making them
more inclined to buy from you.