First Impressions Count

As the saying goes, "you don't get a second chance to make a first impression".  Take a look at your home page and make sure it's making a good first impression on visitors and potential clients.  Make sure your home page is clean and the fonts used are the same from one paragraph to the next.  Pictures should be pleasant to look at, and the layout of that page should be neat and organized. And of course, avoid putting up flashing banner ads, that push visitors to "click here now!".

Pick a Font, Any Font

Last week's tip reviewed the value of brevity and clear, concise text on a site. This week we focus on the use of consistent fonts. It's extremely distracting to read text in different font sizes, types, and styles. Not only is it distracting to try to read text when the color, size, and type keep changing from one sentence to the next, but it also destroys any professional credibibility a company is trying to establish.

Often the use of different colors and sizes is an attempt to make text stand out and capture attention, but this can be done with the use of one text style such as bold, OR italics, OR color, OR text type, but not all at the same time, and not in successive sentences. When every sentence is bolded, in a new color, highlighted or italicized, all emphasis is lost. For the best effect remember that less is more.

USING CAPITAL LETTERS IS LIKE YELLING

People often interpret the use of capitals online as if the author is SHOUTING or YELLING at them. Using all caps may be considered offensive and aggressive to many readers.

Instead of using capital letters to make a headline stand out, try other formatting to achieve the same effect. Making the word or phrase bolded, a different color and/or font size, or in a coordinating font type can make text more noticeable. Additionally, extra spacing around a headline can make it stand out from a regular paragraph.

But remember to keep the effects to a minimum - when you try to make everything stand out, nothing does.

Proofreading 101

Once a site is completed and all the work is done, there is one more task to be done that is perhaps the most important of all: proofreading. After you've worked on a web site for a while, the text seems to say what you think it says, not necessarily what it really says. Misspelled words can sink your company's online credibility.

Print out all the pages of your site and read through each one to check for spelling, grammar, spacing, and typos. Spellcheck doesn't always catch every typo and may not alert you if you type "form" instead of "from" since both are properly spelled words. So for a truly polished look, check your work and make sure it's first rate before you publish your site.