Suggestions for Column Widths
inside your main content area.
Column
Width
The manner in which a site is designed, it's architecture and
software system, overall performance and speed will make the
difference between success and failure.
Write your paragraphs approximately 10 to 12 words
across each line.
This page/site just about reaches the limit for
column width. If your columns spread the entire page width. It is
very difficult to read.
A Tip from the Newspapers
Newspapers use short columns because their readers
can scan the article and comprehend the article better.
Typically a newspaper column width is measured in
picas which about 1.83 inches wide or 47mm wide. The font style
is generally Times New Roman or a derivative serif font.

Typical 1 Column Newspaper Width 47mm


Typical 2 Column Newspaper Width 94mm



Typical 3 Column Newspaper Width 141mm
A lot of column depths are 360mm which is more
than an A4 or US letter size. If you can design your pages for
desktop printers, you should keep in mind the header and footer
requirements will also print. Also, every person has their printer
set with different margins.
This article is extended to part 2,
easy steps you can do now!
Create a info site rich with text and paragraphs that
help your target market audience. A site with intensive photo
backgrounds, long load times, flashy intro's and heavily tabled
designs is very difficult to get to the top. Keeping the site simple
has greater benefits to the domain than extensive and overloaded
designs.
Design Help Checklist
If
your site is a business site, you can add content without giving
away trade secrets, write concise documents with rich accurate
describing attributes about your products or business services.
Replace any heavy graphics with text if appropriate. Images can work
well on sites that need such, if your web site design requires
images. Use a Gallery and hotlink the pictures into your pages.
Limit pages to a reasonable size. More than 3 sheets long means that
your page design is probably getting oversized. Split the long pages
into extra web site page designs and follow all the tips and
designer help for web sites found here and across the web. Write
paragraphs and sentences that lead to more articles. Write your
links in Hypertext format and ENSURE the link is working and looks
appealing.
More help for Web Site Designers
Web Site and Grammar
Summary
Keeping your website designs free from heavy graphic interfaces
is key to allow the SE's to index your site and compare results.
Having a heavy image site will not damage your site, rather just be
a little harder to get to the top unless it is well established with
lots of external links.
New sites should concentrate on text and simple readership.
If your starting to enjoy our pages, bookmark any
page or add a comment on your favorite forum.