Structural Hints

6. Use a Shallow Site Structure

• One or two clicks to get more information on a subject is enough. Do not have too many levels of web pages.
• A good rule of thumb – design your Web site so that visitors can get to any part of your Web site with three clicks or less.
• Make your structure intuitive. Remember: A clever maze is still a maze!

7. Using Graphics Wisely

• Don’t start off your Web site with a large graphic. They can take too long to load.
• Remember: Clients are looking for information, not art.
• Use small, optimized graphics that are related to your topic.
• Make images reinforce the words and messaging of your Web site.
• Add descriptive alt tags to your images, using a few keywords that describe the image and preferably utilize relevant keywords.

 8. The Need for Speed

• Long load times drive users away from your site and deter search engines. Make sure your graphics, PDF and Word files are small in file size.
• Forget about splash and Flash pages. They take too long to load. Research has proven that visitors’ abandonment rate for these types of pages is very high.
• Design easy-to-use and simple pages.
• Make sure those simple, well-designed pages are concise, but feature at least 250 words of text. (That seems to be the magic number when it comes to search engine recognition.)