It can be very costly to hire a web designer or company to create your site. And by spending all that money, it still doesn’t give the certainty that you will be happy with the end results. No one else can make your visions become reality. You’re the only person who knows exactly what you want in your website. Keep these tips in mind to create a good design for your site.
Remember that your site should pass the “NoScript” test. You want to activate NoScript after downloading the extension on Firefox so that you can read your site. When your site is just a blank page, you have a problem.
Be certain that your website can be scanned easily. Tests have shown that the majority of online readers avoid reading everything on a page; instead, they just scan it for information that is of importance to them. Break your page into various sections using specialized or emphasized text, such as bold or italics. In addition, be sure to keep key information toward the top portion of the page. Your visitors will enjoy their time on the website more.
Use the proper graphic tools for web design. Keep in mind that bitmaps don’t usually work well, while PNGs do. For text buttons, screenshots, and other images that are not photographs, use PNG for images with over 256 colors and GIF for images with less. JPEGs are ideal for photographs.
Photoshop is a great tool that novice designers should invest in to help make better looking web designs. When amateurs use Photoshop, they often create very professional grade sites based off the capabilities of the software. If you don’t use Photoshop, you may find that it will take you a long time to be able to gain the knowledge needed to make a nice website.
Alt Tags
Placing ALT tags when using images on the site is important. These tags provide several very important functions in that they describe images for people who browse the Internet with graphics disabled, and provide descriptions for people who are visually impaired and utilize tools that translate images to voice. 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.
Continue to learn about web design. Do an Internet search on web design to find numerous free sites and forums.
Optimize your website for older IE versions. Most people have a love-hate relationship with IE; however, many people are still using it, including older versions. Workarounds are needed for many elements to be visible in IE. It is important that you are familiar with “box model bug” which has harmed IE for awhile now.
Basic design tools will get you started on your website, but you will want to add some custom options. It is ideal that you add an element of uniqueness and personality to your website. This will mean that you need come up with new design elements that are not obtainable by using the provided options of the host’s WYSIWYG editor.
You should always be practicing with the techniques you learn in order to become more effective and creative in your build endeavors. When you practice, it helps you learn more about website development. You don’t want to over-estimate your learning and do something improperly.
Be careful with your color schemes while designing your site. You should be striving to achieve easily readable and visible text set against your chosen background shade. Choose a dark color for your text, and use a lighter color for your backgrounds. If you don’t know whether your color theme functions well, ask a friend or colleague to provide feedback.
The majority of people are familiar with Photoshop, and for those who want to succeed with web design, they understand they must learn as much as they can about it. Many people are not familiarized with Dreamweaver software, so research this program to see what it can offer you and your website design.
Figure out your site’s target audience and ask them what they’re interested in with a website. This will help you design the pages and create the features of your site. The advice you glean from your target market will prove to be invaluable.
All of your domains and sub-domains should have a visible, keyword-oriented tagline. These tags should immediately draw the visitors’ eyes when the page loads. Good taglines are high on the page and formatted in large, clear text. If you use the tagline appropriate, it will let the reader’s know what your page’s true goal is. It can even help to determine if they will remain on the page or use their “back” button.
Make sure that every page on your website loads as quickly as possible. Some Internet users have slow connections, and they will grow impatient with your site. Users will be quick to leave a website that has pages that take too long to load.
Try not to steer consumers on your website into different places other than what they are presently interested in. Don’t use annoying pop-up surveys that won’t go away unless the visitors take action. When people do this the visitors tend to close the browser and simply look elsewhere and you would too. Think about a time you visited a site to pay a bill and some chat or tell us what you think box takes over. You can’t stand it.
You don’t have to design your site alone. Here are some of the things a good web designer must understand: Content creation, search engine optimization, web programming, user interface design, and graphic design. It’s common to outsource some of this work, so don’t feel ashamed to do so. When you are not sure how to design something, keep in mind that there are professional web designers out there who can help you get it done.
It is important to know that white (unused) space, on your site is a great idea and should not be cluttered. This available white space can make reading your site easier. This will prompt your visitors to read more, stay longer and seek you out in the future.
Make user cancellations easy. Actions include registering for any e-mail notifications, browsing the site, or filling out forms. Visitors do not appreciate not being able to cancel things that they are not interested in completing, and they may not wish to return to your site for future purchases.
Include a sitemap somewhere on your website. There are two purposes of a site map. It is going to make your site and business more easily understandable for your targeted visitors. This allows visitors to find links to topics on your site that interest them on one single page. They are also great for SEO purposes. Search engines find it easier to locate your site and “crawl” it.
A great thing about designing web pages, other than it being simple to do, is that you are able to bring your vision to life with just a few easy clicks or some lines of code. The above article showed you many different design methods you can utilize in order to achieve an excellent site. Make certain to apply the methods in this article as they were described, and you’ll make a great site.