Design Your Own Sites: Web Design Advice

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If you aspire to know more about the techniques of web design, then read on! This article features enough information to help you learn about web design, and how to start a site from the ground up. No matter what your level of experience, there is always more to learn.

Have your website prominently feature a tagline. This tagline should give visitors an idea of what your site is about. You only have about 10 seconds to gain and keep hold of your visitors’ attention from the time they first hit your site.

Never allow dated or irrelevant content to remain on your website. You will lose the attention and credibility of your readers if the promotional offer on your page expired months ago. Internet users want fresh information from updated and maintained sites, and letting stale content stay up screams carelessness on your part. Make sure you regularly schedule time to add new content, and to remove old.

TIP! Use graphics that are right for your website. Bitmap images require a lot of disk space and are unwieldy.

Allow your users the ability to cancel something if they are not happy with what they typed in. Types of such actions would include registering an email, filling out forms, or browsing your site for archives or topics. Not allowing customers to cancel actions that they do not want to follow through with is unfair, and it is forceful, which may prevent those visitors from returning to your site or making purchases from you in the future.

Ensure people can easily scan your information. Usability testing has shown that visitors are interested in scanning the content for items of value, rather than reading every word. 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. The top of the page is the correct placement for your highest quality information. Each of these things needs to be given proper attention because they are what will help keep visitors coming back to your website.

Make sure that your front page is not too difficult to read. People judge you based on that front page. Make sure that you provide a very clear description about your business or other purpose for your site. Other information on your site should be minimal, but still clear, so that you don’t overwhelm your visitors.

TIP! If you want to maximize the potential of your website design, ensure that your pages appear correctly on all web browsers, so any visitor can view them. Something that functions fine in Firefox, might not even appear on the screen of a computer using Internet Explorer or Chrome.

Always provide site visitors with an option to offer feedback. Thus, if there is a gap in your site’s offerings or visitors are confused about using your site, it will be easy for you to remedy the situation. If your visitors feel like they are a part of your site, they will want to return.

Your links should always contain content in text form on every page you insert them. Visitors to your page are more likely to click on a link when they know where the link will take them. When links do not have text content, the link could be accessed accidentally by keyboard shortcut.

When you have some ideas for websites, you may as well reserve your domain name right now. Choose something creative, but reserve it as soon as you can so it is available to you whenever you decide to start creating your website. Other people may be thinking about the same thing you are thinking. Great minds do think alike, after all!

TIP! Minimize the use of JavaScript. JavaScript is helpful in the development opportunities it provides, but some users may experience problems with it.

Talk to your friends, family and colleagues to find out if something may have slipped by when you were educated about HTML and web design software. You want to ensure that you remember everything you learned. It can slow you down quite a bit if you have to review what you’ve learned while building a website.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to create the whole website alone. Creating a comprehensive website will require knowledge in design, programming, interface, content and SEO. If you need help, don’t be shy about asking for it. So, consider hiring a specialist to help you make your website great.

Ensure your site stands out among the rest. An easy way to watch for this is to check out the websites of your competitors. Having the same boring website as everyone else won’t differentiate your brand from others. Your site will be considered as a copycat of your competitors’ and not seem trustworthy.

TIP! Always implement powerful site-searching capabilities when designing a large website. This is commonly located in the topmost-right corner of the screen as an empty bar, which users can insert a search term or phrase.

Search Box

Make sure that you place a search box at the top of each of your webpages, and ensure that the input field is at least 26 characters. The search button should clearly be labelled “SEARCH”. Taking these steps ensures that visitors can find and use the search box easily so that they can find whatever they are seeking.

Be sure to have your site’s logo link to your homepage from anywhere on the site. Most websites with a logo have that logo linked to the home page, and your visitors will expect this. A static logo can irritate your users, because that makes them hunt for a separate “Home” link. A simple logo that can be clicked on will make your site easy to navigate.

TIP! Make certain that your site is accessible for various incarnations of Internet Explorer. People usually say they hate Internet Explorer, but many people still use it.

Get free stock images to save money. You can find these images across the Internet, and some are very high quality. Saving money in this area will free up money for other things you need to do.

Make good use of “white space.” This isn’t necessarily white, but is the negative or blank space on a webpage. Website visitors don’t like websites that are overly cluttered and confusing, so use content sparingly. White space helps readers easily navigate throughout your site.

Always ask for others to review your newly designed site before going live. A web designer is only one person, and what you might find attractive or useful, might be considered by others to be irrelevant and hard to navigate. If you can, have people from your target audience test the site and provide you with feedback about it.

TIP! Learning new website design strategies is something that becomes simpler the more you practice doing it. So, try out your new skills and create a simple page using C+ and HTML.

So, now that you have been taught about different ways to design better websites, you should feel confident in your abilities to design great websites going forward. Stay on top of trends and be aware of the changing needs of your audience, and your site can be a superb example of smart web design.