Tips to improve website navigation

Everyone seems to have website nowadays, from the largest corporate giant down to the small webmaster who is eager to show the world about their latest hobbies or their views on various world issues. While this is very commendable, at the same time it presents an ever growing problem that most of us are facing: having our website stand out from the crowd, having a site that entices visitors to spend more than a cursory moment before the hit the "Back" button in the browser.

The problem is usually twofold: getting people to the website and making them stay long enough for us to convey them our message or make them purchase our product. The first part is usually easy: using on- or off-site SEO, webmasters have reached the level of a Ph.D. in website optimization to bring targeted visitors to their site. The second part is the one that still causes lots of problems to many.

People are aware that having relevant content on their web pages is no longer enough. The bounce rate for many websites is still extremely high. Visitors like to have something engaging and entertaining to look at. Afterall we are living in the age of high entertainment. Even online news is no longer pure news, and the media knows that adding lots of flashing images and videos to their pages, making them interactive is all that keeps their readers on their sites.

Yet there are still plenty of pages out there that are sadly boring at best to look at. People don't have the necessary skills to make their sites interactive and interesting. Most webmasters are still struggling with basic html and CSS.

What they don't know is that with using only some of the software on the market, most webmasters could create a truly gorgeous and professionally designed website, without having to know any web coding whatsoever!

So let's see some of the enhancements and add-ons that webmasters could use to improve their website and attract and keep their visitors, who will want to come back for more.

Instead of the boring html static template, design a site in Flash with stunning animations and graphics. This is sure to captivate any audience's eyes and ears. There are various software on the market that allow creating such a website without any flash knowledge whatsoever.

Instead of plain text, have flash streaming videos on your site. Having videos on your website is almost the norm nowadays, and while there are still people who like to read long articles, most of them prefer to click on the Play button and watch the online video. Even Google has bought recently YouTube, which means they have recognized the importance of videos on the internet.

Add clickable interactive maps to your website that gives a new way for your information to be delivered. Having a visual location of your offices lends you more credibility to your buyers. Transparency is everything nowadays. Also using flash maps you can give your visitors a virtual guide before they arrive to your location. Plus having a flash map is simply cool!

Have a flash photo album gallery to show your visitors, friends and relatives your latest holiday photos. You no longer have to rely on services such as Flickr to upload your images for display on your site.

Add an interactive website calendar, which will allow people who want to sign up for your various services, trainings and workshops to know exactly the status of the project and the dates that are still free for them to join. If you are a novelist or band on tour, or you are a webmaster for one, a website calendar is a must!

Offer music on your website as people like to listen to music. With various software available you can customize the appearance of the music player to match your flash website perfectly.

Adding even just one of these addons to your website it will make it more interactive and give your visitors a very enjoyable time on your site. You might say though that you don't have the knowledge to code all this, you have no idea how to even get started with it. And it might require an experienced web developer or special effects artist who know about interface design, interactivity, visual design, database design, and dynamic web content design. And the final cost could be extremely high and out of budget. You might think about getting back to school at take a Web Design & Interactive Media program first.

And I say, you don't have to know coding at all to offer these flash addons to your site. You don't have to touch html while you are busy enhancing your site to make it stand out from the crowd, and the cost is much lower than you would expect.

All you need is the right combination of web design software to create functional and extremely cool interactive media designs, tools, and enable you to create audio, animation, graphics, and text that work together creatively across platforms including CD-ROMs and the Web. The finished product can deliver information and entertainment for the users - and a first step toward an outstanding Internet presence.