ONE of the things that can produce a poor website are pages that are difficult to read.
If you have taken much time and effort to put together a well written piece, only to place it on your site in a page layout that gives readers a headache, then you are likely to have a struggling website.
Here are some simple pointers:
- Make it very easy for people to read your words; simple fonts such as Verdana or Ariel, preferably in black on a white background is a good place to start.
- But also give your words some room to breath with plenty of white space around them, break up paragraphs with clear carriage returns so people don't suffer from word tiredness.
- And don't go overboard with bold and italics, simple bullet points may be more suitable if you are keen to highlight a point.
- Study the websites you read the most as there is a good chance they have got the basics right, otherwise you wouldn't be visiting them regularly.
Well that is excellent advice that I shall be sure to heed in future. :)
Posted by: Linda | February 15, 2007 at 20:49
Hi Linda,
I'll be watching ;-)
Craig
Posted by: Craig McGinty | February 16, 2007 at 15:57
Craig,
It's all pretty basic (no value judgement on what you wrote), but I am still surprised by the number of sites that get it wrong.
The Internet is a pioneering medium that is still very much in its infancy. How can businesses utilise the latest developments - blogs, social media and Internet TV - if they cannot get the basics?
But then again how many people go to school and college for years and still cannot write proficiently?
Posted by: Rob Artisan | February 17, 2007 at 11:55
The points raised by Rob are important. I'm thinking about starting a blog and at the moment am touring the blogsphere. I'm amazed at the number of good sites I find by people who appear to be well-qualified, who present themselves as experts on writing, but who cannot write very well or who don’t have a thorough grasp of the rules of grammar. I know it must sound picky, but I can’t help but wonder what texting and (bad) blogging will do to English eventually. And I’m not a stick-in-the-mud – it’s about clear communication. Even the piece here I'm commenting on has an error - no need for the comma in the headline : )
Posted by: Erin Cox | May 16, 2007 at 17:53
Hi Erin, many thanks for your comment. Well there is no time like the present to start a site and ultimately interesting articles will get read, linked to and mentioned by others. Once you get up and running, drop back in on the site and point us to it.
All the best, Craig
Posted by: Craig McGinty | May 16, 2007 at 22:41