Building a website from the ground up can be both fun and challenging at the same time. Finding the right place to start and the advice you need can be very challenging. The advice here will help you start on the road to success.
Choose the right graphic formats for your site. Keep in mind that bitmap images are not usually the best type of images to use. Try PNGs instead. Consider PNG files for non-photographic images, text buttons or screenshots that require over 256 colors. If not, use a GIF. JPEG files are best for photographs.
Minimize your page sizes. Not all Internet users have fast connection speeds, and the longer your site takes to load, the less interest they will have. Don’t waste their time or your own.
Always give viewers the option to cancel a current action. Whether filling out forms, signing up for email notices or even needing browsing options, users will find this useful. You can deter people from coming back to your site if you don’t allow them the option of cancelling things they are in the middle of completing.
Be sure that scanning your website is a simple matter. Most visitors do not have a lot of time to spend, so they scan to see what they want to read. Using bolding, color changes and breaks between sections of text makes your content easier to scan and makes it more likely that visitors will return. Also, make sure to keep the most important information at the top. This helps the visitors see the important stuff first before checking out the rest of the site.
Post pictures on your site. Pictures help make your website more user-friendly. People always like to look at interesting pictures that they have never seen before, and many times will spend hours on your site looking at them.
Do not underestimate the value of using a plain white for the background on your web presence. If you use a white background, your content can end up being simpler to read — and build trust in your site. Complicated background designs, however, can be distracting, or make your site appear amateur. You will find that simpler backgrounds are better.
Meta Tags
If you want your website to get more visitors, take care to use relevant, up-to-date meta tags on every page of your site. Your site can show various search engines exactly what your site is all about when you have meta tags. Not putting enough effort into their content can severely hurt your page rank and reduce your traffic.
It is very important that customers can navigate any website easily. Your navigation links should be easy to see and use to keep visitors on your site. Your users must find the navigation of the website simple and consistent.
You don’t have to use every inch of space when you design a website. Using all pixels within the site could make your website seem overwhelming and cluttered. Allow for good spacing between elements, which will in turn, make the experience more pleasant for your visitors. White space is often even more valuable than a flashy design and layout.
You will have to know HTML5 fairly well if you are to succeed in website development. If you do not know that much about it, it is important that you start to familiarize yourself right away.
Have another person constantly test your website functionality through the entire design process. Whenever you add something new, you should have a person come by and give you constructive feedback. You might not think much of a video that loads slow, but another set of eyes can give a differing perspective. Always seek feedback from outside sources.
When adding bulky multimedia like videos to your site, consider the different connections with which people might be accessing it. You may feel that your videos look their best when you stream them out at 5,000 kb/s, but a user with a much slower connection is not going to enjoy the experience. The result will be an annoying video that is constantly buffering.
Visual Sitemap
A visual sitemap should be made so that you are able organize your next steps in an effective manner. The use of a visual sitemap will allow you to see how things are developing. Going from here, you are going to be able to identify if any areas are going to need improvement, or if you neglected an area. Nothing is more important that maintaining a visual element that is clear.
Place the most important information in the upper left-hand corner of your site. Many people start reading from the left to the right, so placing the most vital website elements in these areas will help readers see them before the rest of the site.
You can’t rest on your laurels with a site that did well in the past as times change quickly as do successful techniques. Keep up with changes in the field for a competitive edge. Websites are replacing brick and mortar companies more and more, becoming the future of business. For this reason, excellent web designers can earn a good living.
If your site uses a consistent logo image on all or most of its pages, making that image into a link back to the home page is a good idea. Most people now expect clickable logos that take them back to the main web page. It’s frustrating to click on a logo and have nothing happen, and this saves you from adding a ‘home’ link. If your logo is clickable, people will find your site more navigable.
From the suggestions outlined in the above article, you should now be all set to tackle the design of your web site. Draft up a budget, seek out advisers and begin sketching out your site. If you get started as soon as possible, it will be easier to build an efficient, visually striking website.