Is Your Website Both Attractive and Effective?

You’ve seen them.  The colorful sites with tons of graphics that cause your eyes to dart back and forth faster than a squirrel crossing the street.  Don’t get me wrong, I like an attractive, eye-catching site, but I won’t linger if it’s too hard to navigate. And research says I’m not alone.

First, you have to decide what the goal of your site is; i.e. sending visitors to buy your book on Amazon, getting people to comment on your blog, establishing yourself as an expert.  You can have multiple goals, but what’s important is to build your site around those goals.  If your goal is to send visitors to Amazon to buy your book, Amazon buy buttons should be placed prominently on every page and at the end of every blog post.  Make it easy for users to click.  If your goal is to market yourself as an expert, place your achievements in the first paragraph, along with photos or a video of yourself giving a talk to show you know your stuff.  If you want people to comment on your blog, ask questions or take surveys.

There are some basic principles for making your site user-friendly no matter what your goal is:

• Keep it simple – Don’t overcrowd your site with banners, ads, and logos and avoid flashing graphics.  Clean black or white space makes information more digestible.  
• Keep it scalable – About pages and bios should be short and sweet.  Break up blocks of text and make use of headings.  Writers like to be verbose, but web copy is different.  Visitors don’t want to have to think too much.
• Limit your colors – Choose two or three complimentary colors, preferably on a plain background.  If it’s too hard to read, visitors won’t stay.
• Make it a reflection of you and your writing – If you write humor, make it funny.  If you write thrillers, add some drama.  Give visitors a hint of who you are and what you write.