© Copyright 2003 by BasicTips.com, division of BasicTemplates.com
The #1 Most Overlooked Element:
When determining the utilization of links within your web site's
template, don't forget to include a "Home" button or link. As
simple as it may sound, it is the most overlooked element. Your
web template (or variations of it), should be used on every page
of your site. This gives your site an overall consistent appearance
so that your visitors have no doubt that they are still at your
site. Remember that the web template you may have purchased or
that you may be shopping for, must have the ability for your site
visitors' to find your home page from any page within your site.
Your visitors will not always find your site through your homepage
and even if they do, they may want to go back to that page eventually.
Static vs. Dynamic Navigation:
Effective site navigation is critical for the success of any web
site no matter how large or how small. As your site grows, changes
to your navigational system may be needed to keep information
flowing smoothly to your site visitors from any page they may
access or find your site through. For very large sites, you may
opt to include dynamic drop-down menus within your template. However,
keep in mind who your main site visitors will be. If your visitors
have scripting disabled on their systems or are using older browsers,
and you have no other form of navigation available to them, they
will not be able to navigate your site.
Textual Links vs. Graphical Link Buttons/Image Maps:
The same is true if your only form of navigation is through image
maps and/or graphical buttons. If your site visitors have graphics
disabled on their systems (and many folks surf this way to speed
up page load), they will not be able to quickly find the link
they need. They could become completely lost and frustrated if
you do not use alt tags for your images AND hide the link path
with a status bar message! You might as well kiss your visitors
good-bye if you use a "no-right-click" script on these pages too.
Not only can they not find the link path by visually seeing it
on mouseover, but you have further frustrated them by a "Sorry,
you don't have permission ... " popup box when all they really
wanted was the direct link path to a page of information on your
site.
Moral of the Story:
So what is the best form of navigation? The best form of site
navigation is generally a combination and always includes textual
links as one of those within the combination. For example, when
we design a web template we consider what navigational elements
we will be using. If we are using an image map with hot spots,
we always include a textual navigational bar.
Stategic Planning:
Professional template designers take into consideration that most
of their customers will not be obviously aware of this critical
factor as well as other important design plans. At BasicTemplates.com
we strategically design our templates for an effective site layout
and do not take for granted that the end user already has this
knowledge. It takes planning to build an effective web template
that is resourceful to the end user. We could design some awesome
eye-appealing web templates that could easily have the knock-your-socks-off
effect on your site visitors, but if it is not realistically functional
for site navigation, we would not dream of offering it to our
customers.
When shopping for the best web template for your site or your
clients' sites, think about how the site will be structured. Will
you have sections within subdirectories? If the website will be
small, you may not need subdirectories. If you know it will grow,
then you might want to plan ahead and structure it so that it
will be organized in a fashion to accommodate the growth. Always
be sure the most critical links are accessible on every page.
But do not subject your visitors to link overkill either. Too
many links can be confusing and overwhelming.
If you have a web template with a planned out site structure,
and you want a professional opinion as to whether it will be effective
for your needs, contact us. We would be happy to help you. That
is what BasicTemplates is all about: "helping web designers build
affordable and effective sites for their clients"
© Copyright 2003 by BasicTips.com, division of BasicTemplates.com
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