Using Google to search for website design tutorials will bring up a number of websites that explain how to do it. Many of the free tutorials online are just a teaser to try to get you to buy a software program but they won’t tell you everything. Learn more about website development below.
If you want your website to cater to the needs of visitors, it must be user-friendly and simple to navigate. You should have the links on your site prominently displayed and easy to navigate. Menus also lend to easy navigation. Link back to the homepage from every other page on your site; this makes it far easier for users to get around.
Do not publish any site pages without verifying all the links are working. Few things are as frustrating as clicking a link only to land on an error page. Use a program or check links manually to be sure you have no broken links on your site.
Functional websites work out for all visitors, regardless of their browser, so it’s essential that your website is tested across all the major platforms. Even though your website may display perfectly on Internet Explorer, this doesn’t mean that it will look the same on Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Verify the way in which your pages load in all major browsers prior to your official launch.
Do not use pop-up windows. Everyone hates getting pop-up after pop-up on a website. They’ll be much more likely to leave your site out of annoyance if they are confronted with pop-ups. Therefore, you should keep annoying ads off your website, in order to avoid irritating your visitors. Any host which requires you to have pop-up ads is a host you don’t want to use!
When you design your website, avoid using a variety of different fonts. You need to also be mindful of how some fonts appear on monitors, since smaller serif fonts are difficult to read. Many sites prefer Verdana, which is readable in many sizes and colors.
Understand your subject. It is very important that you conduct plenty of research about your subject if you are thinking about using the site as a blog. Providing misleading information to your consumers will only cause them to leave your site. Having a good blog involves having an education on your subject.
Don’t overload a website with more graphics and photos than necessary. Graphics are essential to make sure your site is pleasing to the eye, but overusing them just clutters the page. Never use graphics just to decorate, but only to improve. Your site will be much more usable and user friendly when you minimize the use of graphics.
Alt Tags
Placing ALT tags when using images on the site is important. These tags are very important for the handicapped segment of your target audience. In addition, ALT tags allow you to describe how a link behaves if you utilize your images as links. It’s also important to remember that search engine bots search for ALT tags, so they can aid in your search engine ranking.
Make sure to ensure priority of your user’s needs. User needs must be your main focus. This is going to have everything to do with accessibility and usability, as well as different types of social interaction. These are important considerations to make. Visit your site to see how easy it is to navigate.
Always keep the size of your pages to a minimum. Not all website visitors have blazing connection speeds and will get frustrated and lose interest if your site takes a while to load. You don’t want your visitors waiting for each page to load because they may just end up leaving.
Whatever file types you use for the graphics on your site go hand-in-hand with file size. This plays a major role in how fast your site loads. Keep your graphics to GIF and JPEG file formats. PNG and BMP files take up a ton of bandwidth. Alter your graphics to smaller file size file types to keep load times minimal for your users.
It is important to remember to test your website’s design on various web browsers. Because different browsers render websites differently, the visitor may not have the experience you intended. There are a number of resources that you can use to determine what popular web browsers should be tested. Make sure your website works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and the major mobile browsers.
Make sure you have checked for links that could possibly be broken. All links should be double checked before you upload them. This is important, as visitors who click on your links expecting useful information, only to find a 404 page, will leave your site in disgust. Check to be sure everything is working in order to avoid this.
If you want to create a website that’s nice, buy any of the programs on web design that are available today. Professional web design programs are simple to use and will have you creating beautiful looking websites really fast. You are going to be missing out on a lot of website traffic if your site is not appealing.
In order to evaluate your web page design skills accurately, it’s a good idea to start off with small, simple websites where your successes and shortcomings will be easy to spot. Besides keeping them small, your initial efforts should also be simple. Avoid complex multimedia and advanced structures to begin with, and stick with basic pages of text and pictures.
If you want to have videos on your website, you should first confirm with your web host that they will allow this. A lot of hosts out there will not allow video hosting on their servers. Those FLV files absorb a great deal of server space that simply may not be available to you. Before putting the effort into this feature, make sure you’re not wasting your time.
You need to be looking at the stats for your website when you are making updates. You can see who all is visiting your website and which pages they are spending time on. This provides you with information regarding where to make the most effective updates to encourage return visits.
Research your keywords. The focus of your website should always be to give your users a quality experience, but you cannot do that if you are never seen. Proper keywords will make visitors want to stay longer.
With all that you learn, the confusion you may have about building a site will disappear and become second nature to you. These tips were the pieces. The suggestions here are those building blocks and once you put them in place your online presence will be a positive one.