Whenever you read a reference book, the contents and index pages can be a real help whenever you want to find something. The same can be said for an information website.

Although all good home pages should act like a table of contents, the really professional sites have an index or site search. By offering a search facility, you are empowering your users to ask questions of your site for the information that they want. The possible downside to a search is that by offering the user a direct route to what they want, they might miss some other features and offers on your site; but we at the Web Tree always believe that it’s better that your users get what they came for, rather than leaving empty handed.

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No one will really trust a website without a legitimate global contact number and an address listed somewhere on the site - preferably under a heading called ‘Contact’ In fact, if you are selling on-line, it is a legal requirement. You can add some capture verification as security and this should stop a lot of spam coming your way, but inevitably some will get through, this is sadly a fact of life in running a website.

Receiving comments is another good way to find out what your users think about your website. A feedback comments email is simple to set-up and this will allow you to collate and capture your users comments and ultimately help you shape your site to become a better experience for everyone. Treat your customers as you would like to be treated yourself and they will keep coming back.

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It is essential that you protect the images on your website from copyright infringement. There are a number of effective techniques to help you do this, with the most effective one being using watermarks, which allows your users to view an image, but clearly shows your users that the image is yours via an embedded copyright logo or company name, that still allows the image to be seen through it.

Another useful technique is to only let users download low-res versions of your images. The Web Tree is also often asked to turn off ’save picture as’. If you have saved your images at 72 dpi, there really is no need to worry about people saving them though, as the quality of the printed image will be very poor.

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A website without images is not going to last very long, so make sure your site has lots, and make sure they look as good as possible. It is important to remember that images on a computer monitor can look very different to the same image printed out on paper - you must prepare your images for the web. The quality of an image is determined by the pixel size and the number of pixels to be shown per inch (dots per inch) or DPI. For printed material the DPI should be at least 300, but when your are showing images on the web you must turn the DPI down. The absolute limit for a web image should be no more than 72 DPI, because computer monitors can’t appreciate the difference.

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The Internet does have it’s own language and you need to learn how to use it. In a nutshell, web language is short, informal and often quite chummy, but this does not mean that the normal rules of language do no apply, such as grammar and spelling. Another key thing to remember is that humour goes a long way on the web nd all web articles and writings need to bear this in mind.

Always keep your text short and snappy and highly focused and remember that all of is probably wont be read at first - people initially scan a page looking for something that interest them, so always look for a good sound bytes.  Never forget to also look at your competition and find out what they are doing with regards to text and make sure yours is funnier and better written.

Whenever a site is built by The Web Tree it will inevitably have its own house style, a certain look that means all of the font’s sizes and paragraph formations fall into the same pattern which will be dictated by the HTML code. It is very important to remember whether you have a site built by The Web Tree or anybody else for that matter, that you keep the style consistent and the same throughout. This way your users will feel comfortable with your online world and stay happily parked on your pages for a long time to come.

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As a reassuring sign to your suers that they are always on your site, a consistent logo in the same position is a key asset. Wherever your users are on your site, they need to see your logo and it needs to be top left. Your logo must also be a link, which should take your user back to your home page. Sometimes in an ordering process, your logo may change colour or position, but generally, you need to keep it the same.

I can sometimes feel like needless repetition, but is is the consistency that your users will be looking for on your site. Finally, If your site is English, it is crucial your logo goes on the left hand side, as this is the area that English speaking people’s eyes will rest on first.

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The Web Tree, its a short simple name and most of our customer like it. Thewebtree.org is our domain name and while we would have preferred .com, we are quite happy with the organic connotations in the name. Now what wouldn’t work is a name such the thewebdesignteamtree, it would be too long to remember and therefore useless as a name. Think of all of the great websites out there, Amazon, E-bay, Facebook, My-Space, Web Tree (Just kidding there) - they all have one thing in common, short snappy names that people can remember instantly.

Don’t feel that your domain name has to even be a proper name, it can actually be a made up word, or even something vaguely connected to your company. In the end it is all about marketing exposure and design. Finally, there is a lot to be said (and we didn’t follow this rule ourselves) in having an internet name that begins with one of the first five letter of the alphabet. Most Directories list results and categories using the alphabet, bearing this in mind, you will be stacking the odds in your favour if you are one of the names that come out first.

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Buttons on a website (the links that move your users from one place to another) should be simple and easy to read. By this we mean that when a user moves their mouse on one of yours sites buttons (or links), they know it is going to take them to another page and they know what that page will be.

This doesn’t mean that your buttons and links can’t be creative. The Web Tree always strive play around with colours, shadowing and rollover graphics, but we are always careful to keep them in line with the overall look of the whole site. Buttons are a small and often overlooked aspect of web design that it is crucial to get right to make your users feel they know where they are going.

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One of the most annoying and off-putting things a potential new user can find on your site when they first land on it, is an animated flash intro. Flash is an expensive piece of code that basically animates images on your website. It takes up a lot of bandwidth and for many, it is often highly unnecessary.

Sometimes an animated flash video can explain what your company is all about and what kind of services you offer, but mostly people do not want to spend their valuable time looking at a long advert. The way around this if you feel yo really need a flash video to get across to people who you are and what you are about is to perhaps have a flash video made for you and ask your users whether they want to see it by clicking on a button. That way, you know it wont annoy anybody and it is there if anybody needs it. As a rule thumb though, never force users to watch a flash intro, you will lose more people than you gain.