The credibility of a 

website means a lot in determining the accuracy of

information provided. For example, data received from an
unknown website created by the average Joe should be considered
less reliable than data receive from a government-maintained site.

Website readability is a measure of how easy it is for visitors to read and

understand text on a web page. Readability depends on a text's presentation (e.g.,
font choice, spacing, colors, etc.) and context (i.e., the actual words and sentences
that are written on the page).

Tips for Making your Website Easier to Read

1. Keep your character count to around 80 per line.
2. Make sure your homepage uses an abundant amount of white space.
3. The font you select is key.
4. Contrast is crucial on your website.
5. Navigability helps readability – quick tips!
6. Lists can be useful to structure content.
What is “Understandable Content”? Content must be easy to follow and
understand for many users. For most content, this means simply avoiding overly
complex sentences and jargon, and providing clear layout and design.

What makes a website accessible?

A website that is accessible is designed to function properly with assistive
technologies so that the information and functionality that is fundamental to
the website is made accessible to every visitor. In some cases, such as in the case
of color blindness, no assistive technologies are used

What Are Web Ethics? | Small Business - Chron.com

smallbusiness.chron.com › ... › Web Sites

1.
Ethics in everyday life serve as moral guideposts, comprising a code that defines
behavior as right or wrong. ... Web ethics provide a guide to appropriate online
behavior, adapting familiar ethical standards to provide a moral framework for
navigating the Internet's virtual environment.

1. Protect your domain

The first thing you’ll need in order to start your business’ website is a domain name. That’s the url
(i.e. the .com, .net, etc.) used to access your website. The best domain names are short and easy to
remember, and in the case of a business, your business name is often your best bet if it’s available.
Because domain names are unique by their very nature, you need to find one that hasn’t already
been registered. Once you have, you need to register your domain. There are plenty of services that
provide for registration including Google and Go Daddy. Many businesses choose to register
common misspellings of their domain to make it easier for customers to locate their business.
However, remember that cybersquatting (registering a domain name with a bad faith intent to profit
from another’s trademark or goodwill) is illegal.

While you’re at it, you’d be wise to register your business’ name on popular social media sites such
at Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Even if you aren’t planning on currently using these services to
promote your business, you may find that they will eventually become useful tools to market your
business. Registering your business’ name now will make sure you maintain superior right to use the
name early on.

Finally, although not required, it’s not a bad idea to apply for federal trademark protection for your
domain once it’s been registered. Doing so strengthens your hand if a dispute ever arises down the
road while simultaneously preventing others from registering the same name with the government.

2. Contract with a developer / web designer

If you want a professional looking website, you’ll probably need to employ a designer and/or
developer to help you get your site off the ground. Most experienced developers and designers ask
clients to sign a Web Development Contract or a Website Design Contract as a requirement of
performing the work. However, whether or not your designer or developer asks you to sign a
contract, you’ll want a contract to protect your business. After all, a contract can establish a timeline
for the project, your expectations for the work, and how much the work will cost. Without a contract,
these relationships can turn sour when a project drags on longer than expected or when the final bill
exceeds the parties’ expectations.

3. Create a Privacy Policy

If your business collects any personal information from customers (names, email addresses, etc.),
you may want to consider drafting a Privacy Policy for your site. The policy itself should, at a
minimum, clearly state which information you collect, who you share that information with, and how
you will use the information.
A clear-cut privacy policy adds credibility for your business and can prove useful in case you get
sued  at some point. Legally speaking, it can only help your business to demonstrate that you clearly
communicated your policy to customers AND that you followed your policy carefully.

4. Draft your Terms & Conditions

Depending on the nature of your site, you may want to include a listing of the Terms and Conditions
of using your website. The specifics of the terms and conditions you’ll want will depend entirely on
the specifics of your site. For example, if you sell goods, you may want to list the terms of sales
through your site including how you handle returns and/or goods lost or damaged after shipping. If
you allow others to post to your site or in a forum on your site, you may want disclaimers and
statements limiting your liability for information posted by others. Because your terms and conditions
should be specific to the nature of your business and website, you may want to consult with your
attorney about the things you need to cover.

5. Exercise caution when using intellectual property

If you’re using images, logos, video, designs, etc. on your website, and you don’t own them, you’ll
want to proceed with caution. Long story short, copyright protection extends to any creative work the
moment it is created whether or not it contains a notice. You should also be aware that while
copyright infringement is widespread on the Internet, that doesn’t make it either legal or safe. If you’d
like to use a creative work including pictures and other images that you don’t own, you should
always seek permission first. You can use a Copyright License Agreement or a Trademark License
Agreement to get permission in writing. If you don’t then you may become liable for copyright and/or
trademark infringement.

This is also true if you are allowing others to post to your website. When the popular image pinning
site Pinterest launched, for example, a firestorm ignited because many people felt that the
company’s terms of service actively encouraged the widespread infringement of intellectual property.
Eventually, in order to avoid potential liability, the company amended its terms of service to address
those concerns, but it left many copyright owners with a bad taste in their mouth.

6. Carefully monitor users and employees

If users and/or employees will be generating content for your company’s website, then you’ll want to
make sure you carefully monitor their activity. As discussed above, you’ll probably want a disclaimer
in your terms and conditions distancing yourself from material and commentary provided by users. If
you have knowledge that your users are posting infringing or defamatory material to your site, best
practices may include removing that material.

But while users occasionally pose problems for a company’s website, you’ll also want to carefully
monitor your employees. After all, because employees are acting as your agents, it’s even more
likely that you can be held liable for their activities. In order to limit your potential for liability, draft a
clear code of conduct for your employees that outlines what is and isn’t acceptable on your website.
Create a system that allows you to monitor their activities to make sure that they are adhering to that
policy.
It’s true that there are unique risks involved in operating a business website. Nonetheless, the
benefits to your business will almost certainly outweigh the risks. And if you implement some of the
best practices outlined above, you’ll limit the dangers posed to you and your company.

1. Improve Your Advertising Effectiveness

Placing your website address on all your promotional material will help you gain additional exposure
and encourage the visitors to first check your site for the information they are seeking.

2. Save Money on Printing and Distribution Costs

A website can act as your online brochure or catalog that can be changed or updated at any time. If
you employ a content management system (CMS) you can make changes quickly and at no charge.

3. Easy Access to New Customers

You can have your existing customers refer you to their friends and relatives using only your web
address or URL.

4. Easy to Use and Update

If maintained properly your website will always be up to date and current. Easily make updates, edits
and deletions from any computer on the Internet. No more having to pay a programmer every time
you want to chance a date or add a product.

5. Improve Productivity

A website increases your company’s productivity because less time is spent explaining product or
service details to customers because all this information is available 24 hours a day on your website.

6. Educate Your Customers

Your website can offer free advice about your products and services. This information can be
delivered in a well thought out and consistent way any time of the day or night.

7. Expand Your Market

The Internet allows businesses to break through the geographical barriers and become accessible
from anywhere in the world by a potential customer that has an Internet connection. Selling products
online is cheaper and easier for you and your customers.
8. Extend Your Local Reach

Extend the local reach of your brick-and-mortar store to consumers around the world. You are open
for business 24/7  365 days/year with all the information the visitors needs to make an informed
decision.

9. Promote & Sell Products & Services

Provide photos and detailed descriptions of your products or services. Explain why your products or
services are superior to your competitors. Show visitors how your products or services can help them
in their personal or professional lives.

10. Promote Your Brick and Mortar Footprint

When customers and potential customers are out and about, they will still be able to find you via their
phone. Your phone number, address and full selection can be made available from your website or
mobile-friendly site.

11. When You Change Locations

If you move your business to a new location your customers can still find you because your main
marketing tool, your website, is easily changed and updated. Your website is flexible and if your
search engine optimization is done properly your business will appear to online visitors who search
for you.

12. Great Tool for Finding New Employees

You can post job opportunities for available positions and applicants can investigate your company
and apply online.

13. Your Own Internet Identity

Your own domain name (www.yourcompany.com) establishes a strong online brand identity.

14. Set-up Email Addresses

You can set-up a personalized email addresses for the company, yourself and your employees. If you
set-up a system to accept emails on your site you can then email updates, notices, sales and holiday
store hours to your customers.

15. Two-Way Communication

Customers can quickly and easily contact you, give feedback on your products or ask about product
availability.
16. Cheap Market Research

You can feature visitor polls and online surveys to take the pulse of your customers.

17. Build Your Reputation

Become or remain the expert by demonstrating knowledge and expertise in your area of work. Write
blog posts and articles on the site that educate visitors and help them understand your business and
offerings.

18. Improve Customer Service

Information requests can be processed immediately via online forms and autoresponders
automatically day or night.

rashes & Uptime

A website that crashes is no good to anyone. This is a serious disadvantage for a
business. If your website is constantly crashing or unavailable then people will not
be able to find information about your business and you could miss out on
potential sales.

Advantages of a Business Website

Reaching a Wider Audience

The first and perhaps most obvious

advantage of a business website is the potential for reaching a wider audience. The
internet is used by literally millions of people, all of them are looking for
something and some of them might be looking for you!
Building a website for your business will mean you could potentially reach these
otherwise unreachable customers. Your business might be local, but you might
have the potential to sell your products or services to a wider market, whether it be
people in the next town, the nation as a whole or even the international market.
Data shows that internet shopping is still on the rise, so taking your business online
will potentially allow you to take advantage of the growth and expand your
business. Even if you have no intention of using a business website to sell, you still
might want to let customers know about your business. People commonly research
businesses online before actually visiting the business location. So having a well
designed website will help encourage them to come and visit you or be able to find
your business in the first place.
Anyone, Anywhere & Anytime

An advantage of having a website is your

business information and details about your products and services can be accessed
by anyone, no matter where they are on the planet or what time of day it is. The
internet is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So even if your
business isn’t open your website will be!
If you have a contact form or another way for people to be able to contact you –
even if it is as simple as your e-mail address on your website, then people can
potentially get in contact with you, whether you’re in front of a computer or not.
In the modern age, people are using their mobile phones more and more to browse
the internet, find out about businesses and even buy products and services (UK
Business Going Mobile – M-Commerce). So even if your website is just a short
description of your business it might help customers find your location while they
are on the move. This is especially important for restaurants, pubs and other
eateries, but is also a relevant consideration for most other businesses.
Easy Access To Business Information
 With a website, customers can easily
access information about your business. They can see what products or services
you sell, your prices, your location and much more. Whatever you decide to tell
them, they can find it with a few clicks of a mouse.
Keeping It Fresh
Once a website is designed, you can keep it up-to-date to be relevant to your
business and encourage more visitors (and potential sales). More and more people
are using a blog to promote their business. In fact, research shows that businesses
that blog get more traffic. So using a blog to keep content fresh and attract
attention could mean a big difference to your business.
Publicity & Advertising
You may think of the advantages of a website in terms of advertising and publicity
for your business. The costs of having a business website are actually quite low.
You need a suitable domain name and good quality webhosting and you’re ready
to go. The ongoing costs are minimal, but the potential return on investment could
be quite significant. Think of your business website in terms of advertising for
your business and you’ll be more likely to see the value.
Links From Others & Viral Marketing
 With a website and the current use of
social media and marketing, it is quite possible for a good idea, clever product or
business service to go “viral”. Word spreads like wildfire across the internet and
even the smallest business can get worldwide recognition without any effort on
their own part. Viral marketing is a boom in recent years. If your business is good,
people will link to it, people will talk about it and they will share their thoughts.
Recognition of your business and your brand will grow.
Securing Your Brand Online

Having a website for your business is not

just an advantage; it’s an essential way to protect your business brand online. Stake
your business claim on the internet or someone else will! There is a risk that if you
don’t have a business website and secure a domain name relevant to your business
then someone else will do it for you. The act of Cybersquatting is now less
prevalent since the introduction new laws to combat it, but there is still a risk of
someone innocently taking your preferred domain name. Others with a gripe
against your business might use a website or social media accounts to damage your
business reputation. Getting there first will allow you to protect and secure your
business brand online.
Disadvantages of a Business Website
There are a few disadvantages of having a website for your business. Generally
though, they are outweighed by numerous advantages.
Reliability
The information on your website might be unreliable if not updated on a regular
basis. You need to ensure that changes are made when necessary and have a
disclaimer with regards to the reliability of the information contained within.
Crashes & Uptime

A website that crashes

is no good to anyone. This is a serious disadvantage for a business. If your website
is constantly crashing or unavailable then people will not be able to find
information about your business and you could miss out on potential sales. An
unreliable connection could also mean a plummet in a websites search engine
ranking. This is the reason why You Need Good Webhosting For Your Business.
Difficultly Reaching The Right People
Because of the nature of the internet and the sheer number of businesses already on
the World Wide Web, you may find it difficult to reach the right target audience
with your website. Competition within your market may be strong and the battle
for the illusive No.1 spot on Google maybe a difficult one, against a wealth of
other businesses in your sector. This is not always the case and there are ways
around it such as taking advantage of our SEO Services for small businesses.
While our managed social media solutions can help improve your ranking and put
your business on the right footing.
SPAM
We all hate spam. The internet equivalent of junk mail. This is one of the
disadvantages of a website which can cause you some grief. With a contact form or
your e-mail address published on your website, you’ll soon find your inbox filling
up with spam e-mails unless you use FormGuard or a captcha tool.
Bad Publicity

Having a website risks attracting bad publicity. If a customer is unhappy with your
service or products, then they may feel the need to vent their frustrations online
and reference your website in their review/comments. This could be potentially
damaging, hurting both your reputation and your search engine ranking. Of
course, not having a website won’t prevent such things happening but it might
allow you to monitor and be aware of it. Providing the best possible customer care
and learning from your clients feedback is the best possible course of action to
combat this problem.
Taking Advantage of a Business Websites
As you can see, the advantages of a business website far outweigh the
disadvantages. The potential for business exposure, advertising and increased sales
should be too good for any business to pass up.
Get your business online today with a business website design by The Company
Warehouse!
How To Evaluate A Website
1) Open the site
The first thing students need to do is open the site.
When looking through your Google search results, you may want to teach students
to open sites in new tabs, leaving their search results in a tab for easy access later
(e.g. right-click on the title and click “Open link in new tab”).
It can also be worthwhile to explain the anatomy of a Google Search result and
the benefits of looking past the first few results. I go over this in more detail in
my guide to teaching students how to research. 
2) Skim read
Next, skim read the site and determine whether you can read and understand the
text. If it’s too complicated or difficult to understand, find another website.
Decide whether this is the sort of site that might provide you with the information
you’re looking for. If the site is difficult to navigate, cluttered with ads, or has
other red flags like poor spelling or inappropriate content you might want to leave
straight away.
Skimming and scanning is the default way most people now consume new content
so this now holds an important role in literacy education. A regularly
quoted study from Nielsen Norman tells us that 79% of users always scan a new
page they come across. Only 16% read word for word.
Scanning and skim reading can be worth practicing in the classroom. E.g. give
students one minute to look at a text and then share what they think it’s all about.
This is something that could be tried with emerging readers right up to higher level
students.
3) Look for the answer to your question
If you think the site might prove useful, you now need to find out if the
information on the site actually answers your question. You could use a search
box, navigation menu, or pull up your own search box by pressing
Control/Command F. Type in the keywords you’re looking for.
Stop skimming, and read more closely to see if this information is useful to you.
4) Consider the credibility of the author or website
If the information is there, you need to consider the credibility of the author or
website. Can you rely on the information?
Here are some things you can look for on the website:
  Domain — sometimes domains that include .gov or .edu come from more
trustworthy education or government sources.
 Author information — look at at the author bio or About page. How
qualified is this person?
 Design — we can’t judge a book (or website!) by its cover but sites that are
cluttered, difficult to navigate, or look amateurish may be worth avoiding.
 Sources — trustworthy articles usually link to other sources or cite where
their facts come from.
5) Consider the purpose of the site
The next step is to think about the purpose of the site and whether it meets your
needs.
 Is the author trying to make you think a certain way? Are they biased or
one-sided?
 Are they trying to sell you something? Sometimes ads might not be so
obvious, for example, blog posts can be written to promote a product.
 Is the author’s tone calm and balanced? Articles fueled by anger or
extreme opinions are not going to be the best source of information.
 Do the headlines match the article? Or are they simply designed to hook
readers?
 Is the author trying to educate the audience and present a balanced and
factual picture? This is what you usually want.
6) Look for the date
Finally, it’s important to consider whether the information is current enough for
your topic. You can look for when the article was written or it might tell you when
it was last updated. Sometimes URLs include dates as well.
Does it matter how old an article is? Well, that might depend on your topic. For
example, if you’re looking for the latest research on nutrition or a medical
condition, the date might be very important. If you’re looking for some facts about
World War One, it might not matter if the information hasn’t been updated in a
few years.
If the site is no good, bounce back…
As the flowchart demonstrates, if you’re ever in doubt, just head back to your
search results and try again. You might want to alter your search terms based on
the results you’re provided with. Sometimes you need to change your keywords or
be more specific.
Crosscheck
When you overcome all these hurdles and find some information that looks useful
and reliable, it can be a good idea to crosscheck the information. So, have a look at
a few other websites to see if they corroborate the information you’ve found.
It’s important to remember that you can’t believe everything you read and it’s
essential to consider multiple perspectives.
Conclusion
Studies have shown that students find it difficult to discriminate between fake
news and factual information. This is very important to address but not the only
aspect of website evaluation.
Like so many skills, website evaluation is something that people can become fluent
at with practice. An important part of the process is thinking critically — not
believing everything you read, not settling for any source of information, and
always questioning.
Students need to know that anyone can be an author and publish online nowadays
(hopefully they’re already publishing online themselves through a blog or
similar!).
Like all aspects of teaching students how to research, classroom integration is key.
You don’t need to spend large chunks of time on one-off lessons. Model your own
searches explicitly and talk out loud as you evaluate websites. As you model, you
could evaluate any old website or sometimes show a ‘fake site’ (check out Eric
Curt’s examples of fake sites).
 A linear website is one that is organized with a logical beginning,
middle, and end, much as a printed book would be. Most websites
are not designed to be linear, but it is a useful presentation for long-
form content, such as manuals and online texts.
The circle, a shape so simple, so perfect, so... rounded. No basic
shape is more organic than the circle, it has a smooth quality that
makes it appealing to the eye. Adding circular elements to your
website can turn a bland design into something that breathes
life. Nowadays CSS3 makes easy to create circles and rounded
shapes without the need to use images. This has result in an
increment in the use of these shapes among designers. In this post,
we compiled for you 40 great examples of circular elements in
websites.
 hierarchical navigation structure is tree-like in its nature. The home
page is at the top. Underneath it breaks into categories which can be
further broken into different sub-categories. There will usually be a
link back to the home page on every page below it.
 How to Plan a Website: Tools and Templates to Help You Attract
and Keep Visitors
Posted By: Lucidchart Content Team
Have you ever wondered how many websites there are in the world?
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact number of sites because the number
changes almost constantly. As of January 2019, the Netcraft Web
Server Survey says there are over 1.5 billion websites.
Because people have so many sites to choose from, it can be a
daunting task to develop a website that will draw customers. It’s not
like you can simply throw together some HTML, use some pretty
colors, slap on some eye-catching graphics, and expect customers to
instantly flock to your site.
Even if you could, pretty pictures and colors alone will not drive
customers to your site in the numbers you expect. Planning how
your website will look and how it will function is just as important
as building it.
In this article, we will give you a simple website planning guide and
offer some online website planning tools that can help you create a
compelling site that will appeal to your customers.
Step 1: Preplanning your website
Before you start tagging HTML, coding, scripting, or throwing
graphics at your site, you need to determine what the website will be
and who it is for.
What are your website’s objectives?
You should already have a business plan that defines your goals.
With the goals from your business plan in mind, begin your website
planning by defining the site’s goals. Answer questions such as:
  Who is the target audience? Who will be more likely to visit
your site and buy your products?
 What are the goals of this website? Do you want to:
 Build brand awareness?
 Generate new leads?
 Increase brand awareness?
 Improve communication with customers?
 Create an informative blog?
 Increase sales?
 Provide access to a social discussion community?
 What information will you need on the site to achieve your
goals? What keywords will you use to drive traffic from
organic search?
 What is the best way to present information to your target
audience? Do you want a formal business tone, or do you want
it to be casual?
Be sure that your website’s content is written for humans and
search engines. It is important to write your content for SEO, but
don’t inject your keywords so often that the content doesn’t make
sense and becomes unreadable. Try to add your keywords where
they make sense and where they can flow naturally so the
information sounds like it was written by a human rather than a
robot.
What are your competitors doing?
Chances are that other companies are already selling products or
services similar to yours. Spend some time looking at their websites
to analyze what is or isn’t working for them. Compare your
 observations with what you have in mind for your website. Their
designs and layouts can give you inspiration for your website.
In addition, you should analyze current trends that are leading your
market. Understanding these trends can help you to create a more
useful and compelling website for your target audience.
As you define your website’s goals and analyze the competition, you
may want to get input from team members and management.
Step 2: Planning your website’s structure and layout
As you start to determine what type of information you want on the
site, you can start to plan how you want the website to be laid out.
Organize information and develop a sitemap
According to usability.gov, “information architecture (IA) focuses
on organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and
sustainable way. The goal is to help users find information and
complete tasks. To do this, you need to understand how the pieces fit
together to create the larger picture, how items relate to each other
within the system.”
Use IA to determine the usability of your site. Try to make sense of
how your information is displayed and how your visitors will access
it.
Create a sitemap to give you a visual representation of the
navigation and flow of your site based on your IA analysis. Use
Lucidchart to create a sitemap to help you decide which pages you
want and how those pages should be arranged.
A sitemap can be useful for other people on your team or in other
departments, such as graphic designers and programmers, who may
be assigned to help with the website development.
Lucidchart Site Map (Click on image to modify online)
Determine the navigation flow
Using the data you gathered when working through the information
architecture, try to find patterns in the way your target audience
seeks for and accesses information.
From the sitemap you created, you should have a better
understanding of how many pages you will need for your website.
Creating a flowchart or user flow diagram can help you map out a
logical flow of how your ideal customer will access these pages. The
flow includes the cues, such as phrases and images, that will keep
your visitors engaged and keep them from leaving your site for
another.

E-Commerce Website User Flow (Click on image to modify online)

In addition, you will want to determine whether you will use top
menu navigation, side menu navigation, or both. These menus are
stagnant and remain at the top or side of every page. Top menus are
generally limited to the available horizontal space at the top of the
page. Clicking the top menu activates a drop-down menu where the
user can access the information they are seeking.
Side menus are presented in a vertical tree hierarchy with folders
and subfolders that can be expanded and collapsed as needed,
letting the user drill down more deeply into the information they
need.  
Lucidchart has several templates that you and your team members
can collaborate on in real time to develop a logical user flow for
your site.
Step 3: Designing the layout
In this step, you can use tools such as mood boards and wireframes
to begin experimenting with layouts and colors that will capture
your company’s style, mood, brand identity, and voice.
A mood board is a kind of collage where you can place color, text,
images, and other elements. Move these elements around to see how
well they work together and to view how space is used and well the
layout flows.
 Mood Board Example (Click on image to modify online)
Use wireframes to get a grasp of your website’s functionality. Use
the data you collected from your information architecture to form
the layout and hierarchy of the page content. A wireframe will let
you test site navigation.
 Home Page Basic Wireframe (Click on image to modify online)
Lucidchart has flexible, customizable templates you can use to
create documents such as mood boards and wireframes. These
documents are centrally located and can be accessed from anywhere
in the world, giving you the freedom to collaborate with everybody
involved in the website design even if they are not onsite.
Step 4: Building your website in a staging area
Before you put all the elements together and publish your new
website, put it in a staging area that can be accessed by internal
employees but not the general public. This is your chance to test the
entire site exactly how it will look when it is posted for customer
access.
Ask team members and other employees to access the staging area
to make sure all the links work, the page elements sit on the page
correctly when the browser is resized, check for typographical
errors, overall functionality, and to get feedback on the layout and
design. Feedback from employees who were not involved in the
website planning can be very valuable because they are more likely
to see things that those who worked with it every day have missed.
After the feedback comes in and everybody has signed off of the
project, you can publish to a live site and let your customers know
that site is available.
These steps are certainly not definitive, but they should give you a
good base for thinking about what you want to do so you don’t
blindly start building a site without really know where you want to
take it.
Whatever steps you decide to take for website planning, be sure to
use Lucidchart templates to create the documents you need to
visualize your goals and to collaborate with your team.
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 Create User Personas. ...
 Do Some Competitor Research. ...
 Decide on an SEO Strategy. ...
 Complete a Content Inventory. ...
 Allocate Your Resource. ...
 Plan a Card Sorting Session. ...
 Finalise Your Sitemap.