Website design can be attractive when the designer is aware of what they are doing. Excellent web page design is what sets internet leaders apart from “me-too” sites. Having the right information is 90 percent of effective website design. Take the advice below and use it to grow your website creation competency.
To facilitate navigation, consider utilizing fixed-position navigation. This involves locking your site’s navigation panel as visitors scroll down. This is not only convenient for the visitor, but can also be useful for internet marketers, as this makes it easier for visitors to take some desired action (e.g. buy a product, sign up for a newsletter).
Be sure to view your website designs in all the popular web browsers. What you get on your browser isn’t always what your visitors see on their browser. Research the most popular browsers and fix your site accordingly. Make sure to also send the site to someone running a different OS to make sure those browsers are compatible.
You must always look at your finished websites in multiple browsers. What you’re seeing on your end may not be what others are seeing on theirs. This means that you need to understand which browsers are most widely in use today, and check the site in each one. It’s also a good idea to send your website to someone who’s using another operating system in order to see if their browser and yours are compatible.
If users want to, let them cancel an action. These actions involve signing up for newsletters or email notifications, filling out forms, or searching the site for different topics or archives. 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.
Be certain to ‘remember’ personal information that might have to be re-entered by the same site visitor. For example, if a person has to enter their information to register for an account, and then is filling out a form on your website that requires the same information, you want to have their data saved, so that they do not have to take the time to fill everything out again. You streamline the process when you create “sticky” information, and your visitors will appreciate you not wasting their time.
Try the common “newsletter” technique to keep your readers reminded of your services. Allowing your customers to sign up for updates or important events can have them coming back for more. Have a signup form in one of your sidebars, and document everyone that signs up. Send your newsletter only to those who have signed up; doing otherwise is considered spam.
There is a plethora of programs available to assist you with design. You will be happy with the professional product these programs can produce. Otherwise, people will not be interested in visiting your site.
File Sizes
Bearing aesthetics in mind, you should remember to keep file sizes small. This is because the speed of your website loading is directly influenced by the file sizes. You want your site to load instantly. Remember that not all visitors will have a high speed connection to the Internet. Continue to test your site to make sure it will load quickly, even with a dial-up connection.
You don’t want to be using frames when you are optimizing your website. Users may like pages with frames included, but the information inside of those frames is not included in search engines. If search engines can’t reach some information on your website, your rankings will be lower. Your visitors will be few if this happens.
Use navigation that is easy, clear, and simple to maintain. The placement of your navigation links on a website plays an important part in determining how long a visitor will remain on your site. The structure for navigation should be consistent, neat, and easy to use if you want your visitors to enjoy their experience.
Test your site on multiple browsers, platforms (Windows 7, Windows XP, Linux, etc.) and devices (Mac, PC, tablets, cell phones, etc.) Because different browsers render websites differently, the visitor may not have the experience you intended. You should find out the top five to ten browsers. Check how your site behaves on all the major browsers for both PCs and mobile devices.
Basic design tools will get you started on your website, but you will want to add some custom options. If you stick with the plug-and-play site creator given to you by your host, your website is never going reflect your unique personality the way it should.
Text Editor
File types have a lot to do with the speed at which your website loads. You should use GIFs or JPEGs for graphics. While BMP and PNG files might be better for creating web graphics, these file types tend to use significantly more disk space. Your graphics should be converted into the types of files that can be managed size wise, thus ensuring visitors have a wonderful experience on your site.
You can use a What You See Is What You Get code editor (WYSIWYG), but using a text editor such as Notepad, gives you full flexibility when editing your code. The idea behind platform is that you are responsible for designing site features, then just paste in the generated code. However, in order to eradicate errors and create efficient websites, you should really learn how to code by hand using a generic text editor.
Begin small when you start off building your websites. This way you can ascertain what works well and what does not, and you will be able to improve your skills based on that. If you begin by creating only a few pages, it will be easier to gradually build your confidence.
Make sure that users can navigate your site at will. For instance, do not force them to respond to surveys or offers before they can proceed to the content in which they are interested. Forcing your visitors to do things they don’t have time for will only annoy them and drive them away.
Test your site early on and often. While you’re designing the website,it is very important you perform the usability tests and website’s user interaction as soon as you can. That will allow you to make necessary design changes during the build process.
The website design is not over just because the website has been launched. You need to make sure you keep your site active. You don’t have to constantly update it, but you must do regular updates. If your website focuses on current events, frequent updates are an absolute must. Current is the key word here! Updating your website isn’t as quick and simple as updating your blog. You will have to put work into it.
It is quite apparent that proficient knowledge, skills and abilities positively affect the positive outcome of your website creation ventures. It’s simple to tell the good designs from the bad, and you can always make a good design even better. By following the previously mentioned tips, you’ll create web pages that are a pleasure to view.