If you have a business or want to establish a presence online, it is important to design a website. A good website says a lot about you and your business. Learning what it takes to design cleanly and efficiently is your first step, so continue reading for some tips which will teach you just that.
Set up your site so that visitors can cancel actions they initiate if they change their minds. For example, allow users to cancel registration for newsletters or easily back out of a search. Visitors with second thoughts are not going to appreciate being locked into an action. They will feel that they are being forced to act against their wishes, and it will be unlikely that they will want to return to your site after such an experience.
Be careful with your use of JavaScript. While Java opens many doors towards an interactive website experience, a lot of Internet surfers are going to have difficulty with it. Everyone uses a different web browser, and all of them have new versions released fairly regularly. You can’t expect that your website visitors are going to have the most updated versions of their browsers. Many people turn off Javascript, or disallow it on a site they don’t visit regularly. These things prevent users from making use of your website.
Pop-ups should not be used on your site. There is not a person out there who will want to visit a website and get overwhelmed with pop-up ads. Most people will immediately leave a website that has pop-ups, even if they are on big websites. So make sure you have happy customers, by not including these aggravating pop-ups ads. Any host which requires you to have pop-up ads is a host you don’t want to use!
No matter who your target audience is or what your site is intended for, you should always aim to keep loading time to ten seconds or less. You want your site to load quickly on the browser of whoever is visiting your page. Most visitors want things to happen quickly and easily. If you don’t offer that to them, you will lose many opportunities.
Are you stuck? Look online for inspiration. There are tons and tons of sites you can glean inspiration from. Find a website that you like, identify what makes that website appealing, and determine if it is an idea that you can borrow and improve upon. Remember that you can’t just steal ideas if your site is to be successful. You should always improve anything ideas you borrow.
The design tools which come with your web hosting account are a great way to practice your skills, but they are no replacement for real design know-how. Once you have used the web host’s site builder to its fullest extent, seek ways to infuse your website with elements of your personality.
Regardless of your client or website purpose, you need to strive for loading times of less than ten seconds. A good site will appear before a visitor’s eyes within moments. People browsing online like those instant rewards or gratification, so to speak, so this should be your focus.
Try signing up for an email newsletter that covers website development, so that you can reorient yourself should you ever become confused. There are many newsletters that will provide good information and tips for both beginners and seasoned web designers!
To help you learn how to create your first webpage, you should read about tips and tricks online. In order to create a good site, you should gain as much knowledge on website design. Without the right knowledge, your web design will be poorly done and look unprofessional at best.
Discuss things with your friends to gather if you missed anything while learning about Photoshop, HTML, or Dreamweaver. It is difficult to keep all of the details of web design in mind, and it is common to become confused while designing and miss a thing or two. That’s why it’s good to have knowledgeable friends “proof” your site for you.
Try the common “newsletter” technique to keep your readers reminded of your services. When you allow visitors to subscribe to your website’s newsletter for updates, they will be more likely to come back to your site. Your website’s sidebar is an ideal location for the signup form, and you should make certain to stay on top of who has registered. Just send your newsletter to subscribers.
Keep in mind that everyone visiting your site has different needs. If you want everyone to be able to understand your website, use language they can understand. If you wish to expand your audience, you must first produce content that they can comprehend.
Host Videos
If you want to host videos, read the rules of your host to make sure you can. There are many hosts that do not allow their servers to host videos. The files (FLV) take up a great deal of space on servers, so do not waste your time and efforts including them on your site; learn the rules beforehand.
Design your front page to be a minimal as possible. People looking around will decide right away if they wish to use your site just by how your homepage looks. Spend time describing your business and what it offers, but keep the rest to a minimum so that people do not get distracted.
Building a website does not dictate you need to purchase books. You never know if it’s a good investment. There is a lot of accurate information to be found in books and magazines. However you can usually find all of this information online for free. Expensive books don’t hold more information than ones that are free.
Videos on your site won’t be accessible to all viewers, including those with slower Internet connections. If you choose conversion at 5,000 kilobytes per second, that may overwhelm some users’ connections. This means that viewers are going to be starting at the “buffering” screen more than the actual video.
Check your site’s stats with every update you make. It’ll help you learn who’s visiting your site, and how they tend to surf. This will help you make better design decisions moving forward.
Use Photoshop to create professional looking graphics for use on your website. There are also programs that will allow you to design pages without knowing how to write HTML or other code. Although a copy of Photoshop represents a significant investment, the time it will save you and the improvement it will make in your results can easily justify the program’s cost.
Don’t use Flash on your site. Flash can slow down visitors’ computers, and make them unlikely to want to stay on your site. Don’t forget that some tablet PCs and mobile phones do not have Flash enabled, which could also ruin a site visitor’s experience, causing them to avoid your site.
Error Pages
Take the time to design good error pages. Viewers often click on broken links that haven’t been removed yet. Standard error pages will often just confuse readers or scare them away. Design the pages so the visitor knows why they got the message and include a link to the home page.
Be certain to have a way to receive feedback from site users. When you have this area, your visitors can let you know if something needs fixed or if they aren’t sure how use some of the site’s functions. Negative and positive feedback are useful in improving your website.
There are two stages to coming up with a website; one is to build your site and the other is to design it. These suggestions should assist you in reaching your target audience. As time goes on, you’ll pick up other helpful hints so you can continue to grow your page.