Do you desire to be a great web designer? Do you have many goals in mind that you would like to accomplish, but are being held back because you need more information on how to design a website? If you want to improve your web design skills, this article is chock full of beginner-friendly tips.
Use graphics that are right for your website. PNGs work much better than bitmap images, which are huge. PNG should be used for buttons with text and screenshots that have 256 colors or more. JPEG images are good for pictures.
You must always look at your finished websites in multiple browsers. It is always possible that what you are looking at on your preferred browser is not what others are looking at in a different browser of choice. This means that you need to understand which browsers are most widely in use today, and check the site in each one. Checking your website with different operating systems and browsers will help ensure that it works for everyone.
Pay attention to color combinations in your design. Your content should be read easily without assistance or adjustment. Using a dark text color on a lighter background is generally easier to read than the opposite. Ask someone to look at your color schemes to make sure you are choosing something harmonious.
Broken Links
It is very important that you double-check your website for broken links before you publish the pages. Nothing frustrates visitors more than clicking for a page they want and getting an error page instead. Use a program or check links manually to be sure you have no broken links on your site.
JavaScript is a great tool, but don’t overuse it. Even though it can give your website a more transparent and responsive look, it can give some users problems. No two web browsers are the same, and each one offers up new versions on a regular basis. Some of your readers are not going to have the most recently updated version of their browser. Also, many people do not enable JavaScript in web browsers. Both of these things mean that these users are prevented from using your site.
No matter who your target audience is or what your site is intended for, you should always aim to keep loading time to ten seconds or less. A well designed website will show up on a browser within moments. Many online users want instant gratification, so you should provide that.
Figure out what your subject is about. Research your subject before posting anything. You won’t win any followers by giving them bad information. Knowing your subject is important when making a good blog.
Be certain to have a way to receive feedback from site users. You will find out if a link is broken or if a page is not loading properly. Negative and positive feedback are useful in improving your website.
Alt Tags
It is important to make use of ALT tags for your images in your site design. These tags are important for your website and people that disable graphics. If you use images as links, the ALT tags will give you a way to describe the links’ behaviors. Lastly, search engine crawlers make use of ALT tags, so employing them can help improve your search rank.
White can be a smart and effective choice when you’re contemplating which color should be the background for your site. Few visitors take issue with a white background, which looks professional or, at worst, neutral. Text content is also more clear on a white background. Crazy backgrounds can just cause confusion and make your content become lost. It also tends to make your webpage look much less professional. When it comes to backgrounds, simpler is generally better.
Good meta tagging practices will help your website draw in larger numbers of visitors. Quality meta tags will help search engines index and present your website to their users. Meta tags that don’t accurately reflect the content of your website will negatively impact your traffic.
File types have a lot to do with the speed at which your website loads. You should use GIFs or JPEGs for graphics. Though better for the actual creation of web graphics, PNG and CMP files use up a lot of disk space. To be sure visitors have a positive experience, graphics should be converted to file types that are better-sized.
Take care to differentiate your website design from others in the same genre as you. You can check this by simply checking your competitors’ websites. A website that is too similar won’t stand out. Your site will be considered as a copycat of your competitors’ and not seem trustworthy.
If you design websites, think like an artist. By this, we mean that you should always be ready to let inspiration strike you. Draw sketches for possible design ideas when you think of something interesting. You can jot down notes on a notepad, carry a small recorder, send yourself a text message or email or call your answering machine or voicemail and leave yourself a message.
Make sure that when you add advertisements to your site that they aren’t overwhelmingly huge. Large ads turn people off. Choose content that does not take up too much space and distract people from the important information on your site, which will enhance it and make it look professional.
User interface tools should be consistent and easy to use. Anything with an underline must be a link, and links should change color when clicked. If your site is user friendly and consistent throughout all the pages, people will be more likely to remain on your site for longer periods, as well as visit your site more than once.
Now that you know what it takes to design a great site, are you confident to get started today? You should, and if not you should read this article again so that you have a feeling of understanding towards website design, and in a certain way makes you have confidence when you think about this subject.