This article is for anyone with even the slightest interest in website design. You may learn what you need online, and from this article so read on! There is much to learn whether you’re a pro or a beginner.
256 Colors
Be sure to use proper graphics when designing your website. Bitmap images usually are big and don’t work as well as PNGs. For images that are not photographs, use PNG format for over 256 colors. If under 256 colors, use GIF format. For photos, JPEG images work well.
Always be open to new ideas that may appear on forums that can provide you with additional information with regard to web design. It is easy to do a Google search to find new ideas and information about website development.
Good websites must function with all browsers, and therefore you need to test each page so you know they work correctly under all circumstances. Your content may show up fine in Internet Explorer, but it may be unreadable or badly displayed in Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Prior to going live with your website, see how your pages look on every popular browser.
Do not publish any site pages without verifying all the links are working. Visitors become frustrated easily when they click a link and find that it leads to the wrong place. You could check for broken links yourself, or get a program that scans and reports broken links for you.
Try learning about and using shortcuts as much as you can. There are many shortcuts that can be used when designing your website. Learn as much as you can about shortcuts. HTML codes are one shortcut that allows you to fix things on your pages without the need to re-upload them.
To get repeat visitors, use an e-mail newsletter. If your clientele are able to register at your website for information about product news or highlighted happenings in the near future, they’re more likely to keep visiting. Put the sign-up box near the top of your site so they can easily find it, and check how many sign up when you move it around your page. Just send your newsletter to those that ask for it, or you may get in trouble.
If you are designing a very large site, you should always include search capabilities. At the top right of every page in your site, incorporate a search box which will let visitors search for a term that appears on your site. You can add search functions to your site with Google and FreeFind.
Know everything you can about 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. By providing your viewers with information that is murky or false, you lose traffic. To have a good blog, knowing about the subject is crucial.
It’s hard to go wrong with a simple color like white for the background of your website. Having a white background tends to make the website easier to view and read and it also gives it a professional look that makes it appear more trustworthy. Crazy backgrounds can just cause confusion and make your content become lost. It also tends to make your webpage look much less professional. Make your background as simple as possible.
All links must have text content. Visitors can easily see links that provide content. It is very easy for visitors to your page to accidentally hit a link if it has no text content.
Website design is a field that will become easier with practice. To test your knowledge of the basics, try designing some pages using HTML and C+. It’s important to practice to make sure you know the ropes of web page design.
When you have some ideas for websites, you may as well reserve your domain name right now. Use your creativity in choosing a site name, but ensure you do now to keep the site for yourself. You never know when someone else is thinking about the same name and type of website as you. As if everyone is connected in some way.
Website Creation
Go ahead and sign up for a newsletter that can inform you about website creation periodically, so that if you ever lose sight of your website creation goals you have a place to come back to and begin once again. Newsletters are helpful to both beginners and experienced designers.
Begin your attempts at web page design with simple sites that can be evaluated for potential problems. Start out by making a few pages that just have basic information and some easy text, then asses how it works for you.
Know what you are getting for your money when selecting a hosting service. It’s important to understand what your needs are in regards to CPU, RAM, bandwidth, hard drive space and specific software needs like PHP or MySQL. Never buy a hosting package without understanding everything that’s included.
Since you now have the knowledge to improve your web design skills, hopefully you’re feeling more confident in your ability to learn website creation. Be sure to always watch for new sources of knowledge, as the more you learn the more you will perfect your website creation skills.