Make your pages eye-friendly

Red color on blue background? I’m leaving… Believe me or not, red text on a blue background is used a lot, even though it is one of the worst combinations of colors. Same thing about dark text on a dark background and vice versa. White on black may seem attractive but it’s difficult to read and it hurts your visitor’s eyes.

Avoid using harsh colors and busy backgrounds: honestly, would you be comfortable reading the book printed on the dark brick background? Quite frankly, I don’t think so. Neither do your visitors. If you use a background, stick with the lighter shades and let the text stay black.

Remember: graphics should enhance your web site, not detract! Use the graphics sparingly, avoid dancing, spinning and twirling animated images - they have an overpowering effect on human vision (and make your website look unprofessional). Try to keep your pages simple and calm.

Always specify ALT, WIDTH and HEIGHT for your graphic images.  ALT will allow people who turn off graphics or have text only browsers to enjoy your page; WIDTH and HEIGHT will speed up your web page's loading time.

Just like your navigation, you want your font color, style and size to be consistent.  Don't change colors or font style on every page. Choose a color theme then pick a couple of fonts and stick with them. Just remember to use the same size and font on every page and don’t overdo with colors.

Also don't set your text size too small (it's hard to read) or too large. Size 10 is an ideal size for your main text area.

Before picking any fancy fonts remember that many people may not see them: if they don’t have this particular font installed on their computer, they are going to see Times New Roman instead. So it’s better to use “Web safe” fonts like Arial, Verdana and Tahoma. In my opinion these are most suitable fonts for a website.

There are other common fonts like Comics and Times New Roman but if you want your website to look professional,  do not use Comics!

To make your pages easier to read have a plenty of white space and use separators, headlines or sub headlines. Also avoid long paragraphs:  break up your paragraphs often (follow the 5-6 lines rule).

Your visitors will be much more comfortable if your main text is left aligned  or 'justified" (HTML: align="justify") , and not centered.

Clean up typos and spelling errors

Checking your spelling may sound obvious to you, but bad spelling and typos are very common on the Web.

Run your spell-checker, then 'eyeball' your text several times. Remember, the spell-checker will not catch typos like "you" instead of "your". Ask someone else to read your text: page authors are frequently the last people to notice typos and spelling errors simply because they're too familiar with the text.

Remember: poor spelling and careless grammar and punctuation are the easiest way to lose visitors.

Don't overload your homepage with ads!

Unless you’re selling advertising space or promoting some affiliate product, carefully consider placing links (especially graphic banners that slow down the loading of your page) on your homepage. You don’t want to drive the traffic away from your website and your offer! Don’t place any external links on your main page if you don’t have to. For reciprocal links create a separate page.

If you must have external links on your main page at least make sure they will open in a new browser window (you will find HTML tag on our Webmaster Tools page) and make sure they're not the first thing your visitors see.

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