10 TIPS HOW TO BUILD A GOOD WEBSITA

10 tips - how to build a good website
If you want to promote your organisation or your project, you have to be on the web.Nowadays, it is the first resource that people turn to for information. These 10useful tips can help you communicate what you want to say.
1. Define your audience. Fundamental, but many people forget it! What audiencedo you want to reach? Fellow scientists? Consortium partners? Potential investors?Journalists? Institutional bodies? The target audience determines what content youpresent.
2. Think about your content. Most of your visitors won't know the subject as wellas you do, and have little time to spend reading! So keep it simple and short. Avoidjargon, be concise, focus on the successes and attract your audience by announcingexploitable developments or technologies and their potential benefits.
3. Plan a clear structure. This step is vital. The site should be easy to navigate.Produce a sitemap of your proposed web content. Visitors should ideally findinformation in 2-3 clicks maximum.
4. Make it look good. It sounds so basic, yet it matters! If it looks nice, people tendto give it more value. A good design reflects well on your organisation or project.
5. Limit graphic content. Multimedia can make your content more attractive, butdon't overdo it. Use graphics only if they support your message - white space has proven to be important in communications. Too large images also slow page loading forpeople with poor connections.
6. Offer easily searchable content. Have a 'search engine' box on the front page.A number of tools can be found on the web to help you do this, including Google.
7. Update your content regularly. Sites with regularly changing content attractmore visitors. Archive what’s out-of-date, update with new content, ensure that youdon’t have broken links and add new functions.
8. Be media-friendly. Be ready to feed content to the media by preparing pressreleases, brochures, CVs of relevant contact people, info about key partners andaddresses to be contacted. Put them in a 'Press' section on your site, and don't forgetimages also.
9. Make it interactive. Allow visitors to interact with the content author orproducer. Host a discussion forum or start a blog – it may encourage visitors to drop inmore often.
10. Domain name is important! Last but not least, today we remember website names as we used to remember phone numbers. So make sure that your domain name is easy to remember.