Tips To Help Create A Fully Functioning Website
Most people focus too much on the visual portions of their websites. However, it is crucial to your website's success that you are also focusing on the usability as well. Take the time to create a fully functioning website by reading the advice from the article below.
Most Internet users get lazy and don't type the "www" portion of the URL. It is imperative that as a web designer, you take the necessary precautions to ensure that your URL still directs to your website without the "www" portion. It is surprising that many web designers forget this simple rule of design. Ensure that your visitors get led to the right page, even if they don't type the whole URL out.
When you go to choose your web host, make sure that you are choosing a company that has a high uptime. You can research web hosts online and gain an understanding of what you can expect in terms of service. Never choose a web host that's notorious for having a lot of downtime. If you do so, your website will never gain any following and people will just move on when your website is not available. This means losing time, money and customers.
If you are selling products online, it is crucial that your online shopping cart and checkout system both work properly. Before letting your website go live, test your shopping cart as well as checkout system. People will be angry if they get through to your checkout and it isn't working properly.
Make sure that your website is able to be viewed in different versions of web browsers. It is crucial that older versions of Internet Explorer as well as newer versions are able to view your site. If you don't keep web browser compatibility in mind, visitors will just look elsewhere for their business. The Internet offers several websites that can help you test the web browser usability of your website.
Make sure that you constantly keep your website free of dead links. There are so many websites out there that contain a lot of links, but half of them end in an error page or are still "under construction". If you value your customers or visitors at all, avoid doing this. It is not only unprofessional, but a real turn off. Write a software that checks links for you or hire someone to manually click through your website at least once a week.
Smartphones are just as important in terms of compatibility as web browsers on laptops are. Make sure that when you are testing compatibility in web browsers, you also test to ensure that your website displays correctly on most mobile browsers as well. People will refrain from coming back to your site if they can't display it on a smartphone. If you want to take it one step further, consider making an app for your website that covers most of your content for smartphone users.
A good website doesn't only have good content, but also functions well. This article discussed some of the functions that should be working properly on your website. Use what you have just read to ensure that your website is one that people will come back to!
