I recently came across a great article by Kissmetrics offering some guidelines for website design. Since the layout of your website is as important as any aspect of your business, I thought we should pass along this info. Here are 10 items to explore when evaluating your website. For the sake of a quick (yet valuable) read, I will just to provide the 10 point checklist. For a more in-depth illustration of these concepts, see 10 Ways to Increase Conversions by Reducing Friction by Kissmetrics.

1. Only include sentences that will move your prospect forward;
2. Make sure you’re talking about your prospect, not about you;
3. Check your font size—less than 16px is too small;
4. Don’t use reversed text: dark and light is much more readable (keep background light and text dark);
5. Get rid of elements that distract from the natural F-shaped eyepath—especially images;
6. Don’t let any element physically interrupt the left margin;
7. Use regular subheads that summarize the value proposition of their sections (Use sub-headings and/or bold text on lead-in words to increase readability);
8. Itemize major value points using bullets;
9. Create visual interest with alternating paragraph lengths;
10. Use captioned images to convey value clearly.