thinking about the specific pages of your website. Below are some common web pages
you should consider:
• Home page (Required of course).
• Category level pages.
• Product or service detail pages.
• Standard website pages including: Privacy Policy, Contact Us, and About Us. It's
important to include these standard pages because visitors expect to find them on
your website. It also increases your credibility. In addition to these standard
website pages you should also add a disclosure policy to your site indicating your
merchant affiliate relationships.
• Landing Pages (Pages specifically designed for paid search campaigns. I will
discuss landing pages in great detail later in this section.)
The example above is a simple outline for a basic website. If you're building a bigger and
more complex website you may have more pages to consider.
Tips for Your Website’s Privacy and Disclosure Policy
Use the Direct Marketing Associations “Privacy Policy Generator” to create a privacy
policy - http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml
To generate a disclosure policy for your affiliate site visit PayPerPost’s “Disclosure
Policy Generator” - http://www.disclosurepolicy.org/
If you’re looking for more legal web forms visit AllBusiness.com
http://www.allbusiness.com/internet-technology-forms/web-site-forms/3472250-1.html
Plan Your Website Layout
Once you have selected a content theme and planned your website sections and pages,
you can start planning your website layout. A website layout is like a blueprint for a
house. At this point you don't need to worry about your website design; that comes later.
You simply want to plan a framework for your website.
Nearly every website has 4 common layout elements:
1. Website Header
2. Navigation Scheme
3. Main Body
4. Website Footer
Let's talk about these layout elements in more detail.
Website Header
A website header sets the tone for your website. It typically includes your logo, website
name, and in some cases a content-themed graphic.
Best Practices for Website Headers:
• The header should not take up too much screen real estate. If your header is
too tall, it may push your important content too far down the page. The height of
your website header should be 100 pixels or less.
• The header should load fast. It's o.k. to include a content-themed graphic in
your header, but make sure the file size is small so your page can load quickly.
Navigation Scheme
The navigation scheme is one of the most critical elements of your website layout. A
well-designed navigation scheme let's users find what they're looking for quickly. Your
navigation scheme should be intuitive and follow common navigation conventions.
Best Practices for Navigation Schemes:
• Don't use animated, flyout, or collapsible navigation menus. These menus may
impress your friends or other webmasters, but your website visitors could care
less. When you design for the web, you have to design for the lowest common
denominator. It may seem silly to you, but new web users don't understand these
menus. They were taught how to surf the web by clicking blue links. Furthermore,
these menus increase your page load time, and may display differently in various
web browsers.
• Top navigation is generally used for linking to high-level category pages (global
links). Make sure you don't have too many links in your top navigation or you
may create a horizontal scrolling effect. The horizontal scrolling effect can kill
your website's usability; people scroll up and down, not side to side.
• Left/Right navigation can be used for linking to category and/or detailed pages
of your website. The left and right navigation menus are flexible because you can
have more links than you can with top navigation.
• Breadcrumb navigation is like a compass. It tells your website visitors where
they are in relation to your home page. This can be a helpful navigation tool if
your website has several categories and pages.
Main Body
The main body is where your content goes and is the focal point of your web page. Your
objective is to layout the content in a way that makes it easy to read and follow.
Best Practices for the Main Body:
• Your most important content should be "above the fold". This simply means
that the most important aspects of your content should appear on the screen
without having to scroll. The term "above the fold" is borrowed from the
newspaper industry. The most important headlines in a newspaper appear above
the fold. On the web you only have a few seconds to grab your visitor's attention.
This is why it's critical that you have your most important content visible on the
page without scrolling.
• Use a fixed width column for your content. Have you ever visited a website
where the text stretched across 100% of the screen? It can be difficult to read,
especially on high resolution monitors. Can you imagine trying to read a
newspaper article if each column stretched across the width of the entire paper? It
would be very difficult. That's why newspapers and magazines use fixed width
columns for their articles. These columns are designed for easy reading. Your
website visitors shouldn't have to strain their neck or their eyes to read your
content.
If you use a fixed-width main body you should use a 780px wide area for your
content. If you go any larger than this you may create a horizontal scrolling effect
on machines running an 800x600 resolution.
Website Footer
Your website footer is generally reserved for links and information about your website.
Here are some typical links you will find in a website footer:
- • Contact Us - (required - visitors will trust you more if you provide them with an easy way to contact you)
- • Privacy Policy - (required - it enhances your websites credibility and is required by most merchants)
- • About Us - (optional, but recommended - can enhance credibility)
- • Sitemap - (optional - recommended for large websites with a lot of pages)
It's also a good idea to put a copyright statement in the footer of all of your webpages.
Creating a Website Template
One of the smartest things you can do when planning your website is create a template. A
template can be used as a starting point for each new page that you create. Standard
website elements that don't change from page to page like headers, navigation, and
footers can all be placed inside a website template. This will save you a lot of time when
building new pages and will give your website a consistent look and feel.
Summary
Whether you're planning to build your own website or outsourcing it to another web
developer, it's important to have a plan. A well thought-out plan allows you to think of all
the opportunities and challenges you may face when building your website. Your website
will come together much faster and with fewer problems
