web design

want to create your own domain like your own myspace


Top Ten Tips for a Better Website

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BlackbaudNow is a great tool for building your website and accepting donations online. Many of the difficult design elements are prebuilt for you- page layouts, graphic placement, and site navigation. Now it is up to you to create the content that will tell your story and engage constituents with your organization.
Here are a few things to remember!
1.Remember less is more.
Use shorter sentences, simple words and concise paragraphs with one idea per paragraph.
2. Take care with your logo, graphics, and pictures.
Make sure your graphics and other images are cropped and sized appropriately for the space available on the page. This will give your pages a crisp and professional look while conveying the best possible image for your organization.
3. Be selective about font sizes and bolding.
Too big and you have wasted valuable space; too small and you run the risk of poor readability. Use bold typeface sparingly. Reserve bolding your text for the more important items that you want to drive a visitor's eye toward
4. Break up your information.
This will ensure the information is easy to find and improve the readability. When you break the pages into smaller sections, the text is more readable and flows better for the reader.
5. Consider website visitors' attention span.
Avoid long paragraphs - they are too hard to read on the screen and take too much time; instead use bullets so that a visitor can "scan" your information. Your text should be divided into paragraphs of two or three sentences with white space around them.
6. Lead users to what they want.
Use a headline to call attention to the primary sections. This lets readers quickly and easily find the information they are searching for. Remember very few visitors read every word on your page; most are scanning for the topic or subject they are most interested in.
7. Use more verbs.
As a general rule, choosing a verb rather than a noun to convey your idea produces a more concise sentence. Much of what you write on a Web site is aimed at getting constituents to take action whether this is donating today, coming to a meeting, or participating in an event.
8. Publish a Newsletter.
If you're going to have a website, you need to offer a newsletter to communicate with constituents, tell your story, and build relationships. You need to start collecting a list of constituents’ email addresses; this list will prove very valuable over time.
9. Keep search engines in mind.
Remember, you are writing both for readers and searchers. Writing for searchers means using words and phrases they are likely to enter into a search engine to find your site.
10. Make sure to provide your contact information.
We’ve provided a Contact page for your full contact information but it also might be a good idea to include your contact information on your Home page, along with your email address.