Make sure that your website is very clean and to the point. If you don’t do this, you will find your website not doing as well as you hope. Excellent web design plays an integral part in it. No one wants to visit or spend time on an unattractive site. Learn the tips below and give them a good website viewing experience.
You want to ensure that your site has passed the NoScript test. The NoScript extension can be downloaded for Mozilla Firefox; doing so will allow you to be sure your site can be read. There will be content that needs scripting like order systems. However, if the site is blank when the scripts are off, you have a problem.
Check your copy for broken links before you publish your page. Nothing frustrates visitors more than clicking for a page they want and getting an error page instead. You can check your links manually, or there are programs that will scan your site for you and report any broken links.
One of the biggest mistakes a newbie designer makes is not verifying how a site looks in several different browsers. What you see on your screen may be different from what others see. This means that you need to understand which browsers are most widely in use today, and check the site in each one. You will also want to send your site to someone that’s using a different operating system so you can see that their browser is compatible with yours.
Personal Information
Ensure that you save personal information that the user might need to enter again into your site. For instance, if someone fills out a form using personal information, he or she should have to enter that same information in again when he or she goes to fill out an additional form. You streamline the process when you create “sticky” information, and your visitors will appreciate you not wasting their time.
In order to provide the clean yet effective site you have created in your mind, you need to purchase a site building and design program that offers the tools you require. These professional programs are easy to use and can help you make beautiful sites faster. You site will not have a lot of visitors if it doesn’t look good.
Do not overdo the graphics on your site. Graphics are indeed important to make your website look well-designed and professional, but if you use too many, it just looks cluttered. Graphics should enhance what you have to say on your site. They shouldn’t be put there to just look pretty. Also, including the “right” number of images makes it easier to navigate the site.
If the site you are designing is large, make sure to include a search option. 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. FreeFind and Google can help you install a search function on your website.
Internet Explorer
Don’t forget about Internet Explorer 7 and 8. Although many people loathe Internet Explorer, many people surfing the Internet do it on older versions of this web browser. Workarounds are needed for many elements to be visible in IE. An example would be the vexing “box model bug” which troubled IE for quite some time.
Check your copy for broken links before you publish your page. The worst experience for a visitor is to have interest in learning more only to click the dreaded dead end link. Use a program to scan your site to get the job done automatically.
Throughout the design process, it is essential to make sure your site’s designs looks and works the way you want it to on every web browser, so always check it across all common web browsers. Every browser is different; as a result, each can interpret your design in a slightly different way. While sometimes these differences do not make a difference, there are times when it can transform the look dramatically, or create an entirely different experience for your site visitors. It is easy to discover the most popular browsers. Use all popular browsers to test your site, including the mobile web ones.
Focus on conditional loading as you build your webpages as well as CSS that is specifically for pages opening in varying browsers. This technique will make testing and maintenance easier. All sites require maintenance from time to time and making that easier will save you time.
One thing you want to think twice about is a website counter located on your page, as they have more negatives than positives. You might like the number going up, but your visitors don’t like it. Avoid adding a counter and use other ways to watch your traffic levels.
Make sure that every action can be cancelled if needed. An action can involve filling out forms, registering for email notifications or newsletters, or browsing the site for various topics or archives. Forcing your user to complete an action they don’t wish to will ensure they never sign up for anything on your site again, nor are they likely to return at all.
Design tools included in a hosting package are adequate if you just want to build a simple website, buy you should not depend on these completely. In order to personalize your site, you will want to add features that differentiate your site from the millions of generic cookie cutter website online.
It’s not always a good idea to host your website yourself, even when you have a great deal of money sunk in the venture. Having an experienced team of experts running your server for you, including upgrading the software and dealing with hardware failure, will leave you time to focus on your site itself.
While most visitors aren’t overly critical, nobody wants to use websites that don’t load properly or that are not user friendly. You can help yourself design a good website by sticking to the important tips learned in the above article.
Avoid using pop-up advertising. Your customers will hate being flooded with popup ads. Most people will immediately leave a website that has pop-ups, even if they are on big websites. Avoid those annoying ads to keep your customers content. If your host tries forcing pop-ups on you, look for another one.