"Before you even start designing a page, keep in mind the following four principles. Remember, these are basic, underlying principles. They don't close any aesthetic doors. They provide a stable foundation upon which there is much freedom to design something as unique as it need be. But they will result in a page that is simpler and more effective than much of what we've reviewed today.
Identify Your Audience
Properly identifying your audience is the most critical step to designing an effective website. Chances are, you think your audience is bigger that it actually is. Take time before any prototyping or design is done to create user personas—realistic personality profiles that represent a significant group of your website's users. Without accurate personas, we're much more prone to making guesses or assumptions about who our prospects are, and creating content based upon that mistake.
Focus Your Content on Your Audience
Once you've correctly identified your audience, you can figure out what they need from you. Your content strategy should be informed by your personas, the opportunities you give them to connect with you, and the methods that are most effective for measuring the success of the site.
Include one or two calls to action
One or two at most. If you have more than that crowding the sidebar of a page, it's probably because you haven't thought through who the page is for and what next step makes the most sense for them.
Use Related Content Sparingly
Providing links to related content is a good thing to do. It provides opportunities for a prospect to learn more about what you do based upon the material they're already reading. But make sure that the way that related content is generated results in a few links to pages that are actually related. What you don't want is to direct a captive audience to something which will cause them to lose interest."
