Website Best Practices

Calls to action

Calls-to-action

Make a call-to-action, or the action/set of actions you want users to take, clear on your site. The call-to-action text should have an action verb, such as “Request Information” “Visit Today” or “Talk to an Adviser.”

Best practices for displaying contact information

Contact Us blurb

Put your contact information in the same spot on each page, such as the right or left widget or at the bottom of each page. Keep the information concise—a phone number and an email address—and link to a page of the complete contact information.

Keep content concise

Set goals for your website, the pages within it and what you want people to do or find on your site. Once you have that set, write out the content needed to accomplish those goals and consider adding content only if there will be value added to your audience.

Use headings/subheadings and lists to break-up content

In Web writing, think about your content in chunks. What “chunks” of information should stay to- gether. Once you have determined which content should be grouped together, write a header or subheading for each section. This creates a visual break for your audience, helping them to digest the information. Breaking lists into bullet points helps the flow of your content.

View an example of page content using subheadings and bullets to break-up content:

Example of headings and subheadings

Formatting text

Format your text by using headings, subheadings, boldface and normal paragraph styles to show your users what information is most important. Following the inverted pyramid, headings should be used at the top of the page, then subheadings.

Write in the inverted pyramid style

The inverted pyramid style puts the most important information at the top, the who, what, where, when, why and how, in the first paragraph. Keep your sentences short and your paragraphs to one to three sentences, making the content easier to digest, and less overwhelming.