If you are inexperienced with web design, you should start by learning as much as possible about the basics. Fortunately, there are hundreds of valuable resources–this article included–that can contribute to your knowledge of basic design principles. Keep reading for a selection of web design tips and tricks.
Display a tagline in a prominent area on your page. A tagline is seen as a statement that tells people what a business’s site is about. This is important since the average user knows if they want to stay and explore a site within eight minutes.
Design web pages to not take up too much space. If your site takes awhile to load, your visitors will lose interest. You don’t want people to have to abandon your site because the pages won’t load.
There is a plethora of programs available to assist you with design. Pro designer programs are easy to learn and use and can have you creating sites quite quickly. If you don’t have a good site, you won’t have a large number of visitors.
No matter what type of website you design or who the audience is you want to target, always keep the page load time under ten seconds. Visitors want and deserve a sleek website that slides into their browsers fast. Most Internet users are looking for instant returns, and it would behoove you to make that happen.
Creating a newsletter can help you get repeat visitors. This can be an excellent way of building your client base. Stick the sign-up form in a spot that’s out of the way, such as in a sidebar, and keep good records of those who sign up. Send the newsletter only to people who opt-in or you could get in trouble for spam!
Know what your subject is. This means that no matter what information you share, do your research. Giving your customers unclear or false information will only cause you to lose readers. To have a good blog, knowing about the subject is crucial.
Search Engines
Frames are one feature to eliminate if you are attempting to optimize your site for search engines. Although some users like frames, information inside the frame will not show up when searched. If there is important information that you want the search engines to see on your website, never put it within a frame. This will lead to a reduction in visitors.
During the process of designing your site, use ALT tags for your images. If someone cannot pull up the image, these tags let them know what should be in the space. If you use images as links, the ALT tags will give you a way to describe the links’ behaviors. It’s also important to remember that search engine bots search for ALT tags, so they can aid in your search engine ranking.
White is a great choice for a background color. It’s simplistic, yet has a lot of potential at adding flare and color elsewhere. Viewers will feel confident in the professional look afforded by a solid white background. Giving your site a background featuring vibrant colors or complex patterns, though, can give an unprofessional impression and reduce the clarity of your site. Simple backgrounds are generally better.
Do not include a website counter; it just doesn’t look good. It adds nothing to your website and is an outdated feature. Do away with that visitor counter and rely on other means to tell you how many people are stopping by.
While it might free up some funds to use elsewhere on your site, hosting your own website is a bad idea. Design as much as you can on your own, though allow somebody else to do the hosting. This will save you a lot of time, and provide you with the ability to concentrate on other important things apart from the security and safety of your site.
Doing research before implementing your website design in very important. Research your niche, so you can set your sights on your target audience. Think about different ways to design the site and maximize your efforts. Doing so will make your website creation efforts pay off handsomely.
Remember that the process of designing your website continues even after your site goes live. Do not simply abandon your site after you have launched it. You don’t need to constantly tweak it, but it’s critical to update the site regularly. Regular updates are crucial, especially if your website hosts anything relating to current events. Updating your website isn’t as quick and simple as updating your blog. It does require you to work at it.
If you’re wanting to design multiple sites, you need to learn how to work with multiple platforms. Learning PHP and MySQL skills, as well as Java and other platforms, will help you out in the future. It does not matter if you are designing for yourself or for your friends, you should work on becoming a multi-faceted web designer.
As you read earlier, inexperienced web designers must be willing to learn about the fundamentals before they can produce high-quality work. With so much information available, it’s hard to understand how to get started. What you’ve read here will get you started and help you to figure out where to go next.