As more and more of our lives take place online, any business that wants to succeed needs to make sure it has an effective Internet presence. But if your site looks bad, you’ll definitely take a hit in business. Use these tips and tricks to design an excellent website.
You should also consider implementing fixed-position navigation. This technique locks the navigation panel on the site in place whenever the user scrolls on the page. This is convenient for the user and for Internet marketers since it lets users perform desired actions like signing up for newsletters or buying products.
When developing a website, you must check out how it looks in various browsers. Different browsers show websites in different ways. Make changes to your site to make it look good on all popular browsers. Before you decide to go live, you should always have others using different browsers and operating platforms review your site to verify it works on different systems.
It is important to choose great graphics for your web design. PNGs are currently the best standard for graphics online. Use PNGs for images over 256 colors for text buttons and the like or use GIF files for images smaller than 256 colors. When using photos, make them JPEGs.
You website should be easy to scan. Usability testing has shown that visitors are interested in scanning the content for items of value, rather than reading every word. Broken into sections, text becomes more readable and visitors willingly return. Put the pertinent information near the top of your page. This ensures your site is user friendly.
To help new web designers make good sites, use Photoshop. Photoshop really speeds up the development of even complex websites. Building a site from scratch can be overwhelming for amateur designers, so take advantage of design tools and programs that can do some of the heavy lifting for you.
Load Quickly
Visitors want to have access to a website quickly, which is why your pages should load easily. Your visitors are more likely to lose interest in your website and leave the page if they have to wait for a few minutes before having access to the content.
Other than the aesthetics of your site design, one of the most important things to consider is keeping all your file sizes to a minimum. There is a direct correlation between file sizes and page load times. You want your website to load quickly so visitors won’t lose patience with it. You must keep in mind that not all visitors will have a fast Internet connection. Continue to test your site to make sure it will load quickly, even with a dial-up connection.
Leave out the frames if you want the website you create to be optimized for the major search engines. While visitors to your site may enjoy the pages that have frames, search engines do not pick up the information contained within frames. If search engines can’t reach some information on your website, your rankings will be lower. When that happens, not many people will see your site.
All load times on the website you design should be as fast as possible. If visitors have to wait too long, they will likely leave. Reduce graphics, scripts and Flash consoles on your web page, optimize HTML and utilize SSI files.
Include search elements that let visitors search site content. When a visitor wants to find something specifically, they will immediately look for the search tool. If your site doesn’t have one, they will probably go to a website that does. Make sure your search box is visible. The right hand side of the page, at the top, is the best location.
Test early and test often to maintain accuracy. Usability and interaction testing needs to start not long after you start the preliminary design phase of any website. Keep testing and improving as the design nears completion.
If you end up with designer’s block, look around the internet. There are thousands, if not millions, of websites waiting for you to browse and wait for inspiration to strike. Pick a site you like, figure out why you like it, and see if you can implement those techniques into your site. Expand on those appealing aspects to help you build your own website. You should always improve anything ideas you borrow.
You are in the right direction if you are using a web host’s website building tools, but it is not ideal to rely solely on those tools. You need to incorporate your personality into the website, and that can be done by adjusting some stuff and adding others that the host design tools don’t offer.
Check your copy for broken links before you publish your page. An error page after clicking a link is very frustrating for visitors to your page. Either use a program to check for broken links or check each link manually.
Website Creation
Practice as much as you can. Try out everything you learn with regard to website creation so that you truly understand how it works. When you practice, it helps you learn more about website creation. You don’t need to think that you’ve leaned something only to find out that you didn’t fully grasp it.
When beginning your site, don’t put too much content on each page. A huge amount of content may be hard for you to organize and may confuse and annoy those who come to your site.
Avoid overusing JavaScript. Even if JavaScript opens up interesting possibilities for your designs, not all your visitors will be able to see your content properly. Every web browsers is different and they are constantly updating. It is often the case that people don’t rush to get the latest version. Also, consider that JavaScript isn’t regularly enabled in everyone’s browser. Both of these mean users will be prevented from using the site you made.
If at all possible, incorporate a way for visitors to search throughout your site for the information they are seeking. Customers will appreciate the ability to effortlessly navigate your site. It is very easy to include this option on your website, and visitors will undoubtedly appreciate your effort.
Avoid buying books on website creation. It might not be a bad investment. There are lots of helpful books on the subject. However, there are countless websites available that share all the info needed to make a great site. Whether costly or free, books on website design all tell you pretty much the same things.
As you can tell, it’s not too hard to design a website. Just get the basic principles down and get into projects to see how well you can do. Use these tips to learn more.
Take some time to learn about shortcuts that can be used to save time. Most web design techniques have shortcuts you can use. You can even use HTML codes to help make changes quicker so that your pages don’t need to be uploaded again.