Article: The Rules of Website Coherency
             - by Mark Joyner

Let's take a little test. Imagine you are surfing a website.  You are looking for an exact piece of information.

Now imagine you have to navigate through an incomprehensible maze of text and bizarre links. After 30 tedious seconds of this, imagine what you would do next.

If you're like me, you'd just hit the back button and go away. Who needs it, right?  I barely have enough time to eat lunch. Where am I going to find the time to pour through an incomprehensible site that may, or may not, have what I need?

This is a common problem on the net.  Even sites that are otherwise well-designed often miss the mark here.

Take a moment right now and look at your site.  Is it easy to navigate?  This exercise requires quite a bit of honesty.  You have to step outside yourself.  What makes sense to you may or may not make sense to someone else.

Wouldn't it be nice to have some hard and fast rules, here?  To ensure your site always makes sense to the surfer, you can do one of two things (or both):

1. Provide a linear path that takes you through the site step by step.

2. Provide a non-linear navigational structure that is:

a. Easy to understand

b. Easily Recognizable

c. Consistent

No matter what type of content you have on your site, you should follow these rules to make surfing easier.  If you can find another way to ensure your site is easy to surf, then go for it! However, these rules will provide a ready guide for you.  Apply them to your site now and your repeat visits will increase dramatically.

Article by Mark Joyner, of 1001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics. Mark is also the CEO of Aesop Marketing Corporation.1001 KIMT is an absolute *must have* for anyone serious about Internet marketing