Do you think that you need fancy templates and over priced software in order to make a great website? The answer to this question varies according to what you are prepared to learn about the process. You can always just hire someone else to design your website and hope for the best. If you’re willing to put in a little work, however, you can read these tips and learn how to design an awesome website on your own!
Your site must be simple to navigate if you want to attract visitors. It should always be easy to get from one page of the site to another. A navigation menu will also help visitors locate exactly what they’re looking for. Visitors will also be able to get around better if every sub-page has links back to your site’s primary pages.
Successful websites work well with any browser, so you’ll need to do some testing of your paging using various browsers. What may work great in Firefox, may not work well in Internet Explorer or Chrome. Monitor how the pages look in major browsers before taking your website live.
Use fixed-position navigation. This will make sure the navigation panel is locked in place as your readers move throughout the site. You can use this both to allow your visitor to navigate more easily, and to keep your call to action in view.
You should never go live before previewing the site and ensuring images load properly and all links work. Nothing frustrates visitors more than clicking for a page they want and getting an error page instead. Links can be checked manually, and you can also find software that will check your site to see if there are any broken links.
Avoid pop-ups. This is one of those most hated marketing tactics on the web! This often causes people to leave a site, meaning they never take the time to get to know your product. You can avoid losing customers and visitors, by simply refusing to allow pop-up ads on your website. Any host which requires you to have pop-up ads is a host you don’t want to use!
Keep each different topic separated. If your website covers a variety of different topics, put these topics on separate pages. This will keep things clear and simple for readers, and also help you rank with search engines.
Speed is critical online, so you have to be certain that your website pages load very quickly. If a visitor needs to wait while the page loads, they may click off your site and not return.
Research your keywords. While your primary focus is to offer customers information that is up to date and relevant, the first order of business is to form a customer base. Proper keywords will make visitors want to stay longer.
Meta Tags
Use relevant meta tags to increase site traffic. Properly used meta tags make it easier for search engines to classify your site correctly. Meta tags that don’t accurately reflect the content of your website will negatively impact your traffic.
Set up your site so that visitors can cancel actions they initiate if they change their minds. This could be a form that they have been filling out, registering for newsletters or emails, or even browsing the website for certain 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.
It is important to remember to test your website’s design on various 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. You can find more about which browsers are most in use and focus on them, so hunt down this information. Double check that your site works on every browser, and don’t forget about the mobile software as well.
Never place pop-up ads on your website. Integrating pay per click advertising to earn money is an important part of designing a website, however pop up ads only obstruct readers’ view and serve to annoy them into leaving. People tend to avoid pages altogether that have pop-up ads. Banner and text ads are a tasteful way to monetize your site.
Making a website is much easier than brain surgery. Compared to other careers or operations, website design is actually quite simple, and amateurs can learn to do it quickly. If you can follow all the suggestions outlined above, you will be able to design a great looking website.
Make sure you have the right background. Some sites have moving GIF backgrounds, which can be great at times, but can make your text difficult to read at other times. Pick a background that meshes with your site, not against it, and your viewers will have a much easier time understanding what you want to say.