A lot of aspiring web designers think flashy sites are eye-catching, but visitors with slower internet connections don’t like them. Many successful websites try keeping things simple so that the majority of people can get their desired information. Outlined below are some helpful tips to keep your website simple and clean.
Use graphics that are right for your website. PNGs work much better than bitmap images, which are huge. For non-photographic images, text buttons, and screen shots, use PNG or GIF. Photos require JPEG to ensure high quality.
Don’t use frames. It isn’t the 90’s anymore. Though frames were of importance early on in website creation, there were many flaws. A website that uses frames can cause trouble for visitors when they try to bookmark a site, and no one wants to spend their time scrolling on a website needlessly. There are a lot of better ways to get people to go through the website you have.
If you are designing a very large site, you should always include search capabilities. Place a search box in the top right corner on the home page where users can search for a term that may appear on your site. Search functions for websites are available from FreeFind and Google.
Don’t make page sizes too big. Users with slower Internet connections may decide that the wait is not worth it if your site is slow to load. If the wait is too long, your visitors may give up and leave.
Take advantage of as many shortcuts as you can. Most website design techniques have shortcuts you can use. For example, you can use certain HTML codes to make very quick changes without needing to re-load.
There are a lot of web page design programs available for sale, and they can help you create a great website. Programs made specifically for website design are often easy to use and can help you craft good looking websites quickly. Should your website not be appealing, then your visitor count is going to be low.
Whatever your design is like aesthetically, be sure all your files are small. This is because the size of the files dictates the speed at which your website loads. You always want your site to load as quickly as it can. You must keep in mind that not all visitors will have a fast Internet connection. You should try loading your site on different kinds of connections to see how quickly it loads.
Make sure that each different subject area in your content is seperated. Keep different topics on different pages. This not only eliminates customer confusion, but it also helps you out with search engine crawlers and your site rankings.
Search Box
Search engine capabilities are an essential part of a large site. The best place to put your search box is on the top of your homepage. Shoot for the upper right corner. Users often expect to see a search box in this area and may want to search your site for the information they are looking for. If you can’t code one yourself, Google and a few other websites offer free search functionality for websites with no programming required.
Frames are one feature to eliminate if you are attempting to optimize your site for search engines. While they improve your site’s looks, any information contained in a frame is not indexed by search engines. If the search engines can’t view this important information, then you’re not going to fare well in the search engine rankings. This can hinder any new visitors.
You should always make sure to implement a way that users can submit feedback to you about your website. This will help you recognize mistakes in your design and give you the opportunity to fix them. Giving your visitors a voice makes them much more likely to return to your site and continue the conversation.
Do not add pop-up windows to your site. The average user finds pop-up windows to be an annoying distraction, rather than something useful. If your visitors become frustrated enough with pop-ups, they may permanently leave your website.
Leave out the frames if you want the website you create to be optimized for the major search engines. While visitors to your site may enjoy the pages that have frames, search engines do not pick up the information contained within frames. Your rating will not be very high if search engines can’t see some of your important info. If this does happen, your visitation may sink.
You don’t have to fill every pixel on the screen with content! Using every pixel available to you can make the website feel overwhelming or cluttered. Those visiting your site will actually be relieved by having extra space and not feeling overwhelming. In some cases, empty space can be just as valuable as content.
Meta Tags
Using proper and high-quality meta tags on your website is crucial to proper website creation and attracting more traffic. Good meta tags help search engines understand and categorize your website’s content properly. Poor or useless tags that are irrelevant to your site will deter future and returning visitors.
File types can affect the time it take for a website to load. Ideally, graphics should be made from GIFs and JPEGs. PNG and BMP files take up a ton of bandwidth. Convert your graphics into file types with more manageable sizes if you want to ensure that your visitors have a great user experience at your website.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is not reserving domain names immediately when they are considering owning several sites. Once you’ve thought of a domain name that you like, you should reserve it so that it’s still there when you’re ready to use it. Many people might have the same idea as you. The whole world is very connected.
Text Editor
While development platforms can ease the coding process, many are not as efficient as a plain old text editor. Most people use a design platform to generate code for any features that they want on their website, and then they simply copy and paste the code into their webpages. However, if you’re wanting to minimize errors and have an excellent experience, you need to utilize a text editor.
Buying books on web design is money well spent. You don’t want to pick books about specific software versions as they’ll become outdated quickly, but style guides and even SEO information will last you a long time.
Many platforms will put together code that you need, but you will find that some are unreliable editors. When you use a platform, in theory it will provide workable code to produce the website features and appearance that you want. To minimize errors and work with the code in a more hands-on way, choose a standard text editor.
HTML5 is something you need to familiarize yourself with if your website development is going to be successful. If you aren’t familiar with html5 then you’re going to have a lot of work to accomplish in the future so get your mind ready and start learning,
As you can now see, flashy websites are not necessary. You want your website to look great and load quickly. Use the above tips to design a nice, but simple site.
