Designing a great site takes a lot of work. Web page design can be overwhelming if you aren’t prepared enough. Let this article help you prepare for the challenges you might face.
Always give your readers the ability to stop whatever it is they’re doing. This could mean ordering products, opting in to an email newsletter, or returning to the homepage from deep within your site. If your visitors can’t easily change their mind and back out of registering for a site feature, they may feel forced to complete a transaction. This isn’t good for your web traffic or your reputation.
Publish a newsletter, to increase your likelihood of having repeat visitors. By giving your visitors an opportunity to keep current on your site offerings, you increase their loyalty. Place a signup form on your site in a sidebar, while maintaining a list of everyone who signs up. Send your newsletter only to those who have signed up; doing otherwise is considered spam.
Simplify your home page. People will quickly decide whether or not they want to do business with you by how your homepage looks. Be descriptive about what your business does, and your unique offerings, but keep everything else to a minimum to avoid distraction.
Place personal photos on your site to make it look better. A few pictures on your site can make it more appealing to visitors. People will take more time browsing your site and looking at pictures.
Avoid use of too many different fonts in any one web page design. Also, think about the way various fonts look on a standard screen. Little serif fonts (such as Times New Roman) can be difficult to read. Many sites make use of Verdana, as it can be read in many sizes and colors.
Include text content on your link page. These types of links let the user know exactly what they are clicking. Textless links can easily be clicked by mistake.
Use professional-looking, and readable fonts. The quality of a professional website is measured by it’s fonts. Do not use Comic Sans, overly ornate fonts, or fonts that many computers might not have. If they don’t have that font on their computer, it might be subset to their default font. This can make your website look a lot worse.
A website counter is outdated and not attractive. This might seem interesting at first glance, but your visitors find this distasteful. As you can see, the counter can be counterproductive and you can use other tools in the back office or online to check visitor count.
Don’t rely solely on the design tools provided by the host to build your site. It’s important to have your personality show through on your website, and the way to do this is by adding extra touches the host site doesn’t offer.
Web hosting is a package deal and you need to take the time to understand what the host is providing you for the price. You will need to know the following: bandwidth, disk space, CPU usage, and any other items that are part of the package price. Find out exactly what you’re going to receive before you make a decision.
Be sure to proofread everything you post to present a professional appearance. People should respect your company. If the site is clunky and slow, you will be labeled as a fly by night marketer and lose not only traffic but potential revenue.
Stay in contact with friends who are knowledgable about design programs like Dreamweaver or Photoshop to make sure that you don’t forget how to use them properly. It is important to ensure that you learn as much as possible about designing your site. Otherwise, you run the risk of making costly errors.
Allow visitors to search your site from every page. This is absolutely essential for maximizing the site’s usability, and creates easy access to whatever information the viewer is seeking. These searches are easy to add — and worth the time.
You don’t have to design your site alone. Website development requires knowledge of many different areas including graphic design, user interface design, web programming, search engine optimization and content creation. Feel free to enlist professional help to make your website better. When you are not sure how to design something, keep in mind that there are professional web designers out there who can help you get it done.
Make sure you have different designs from other designs of those in your particular niche. Look at competitors’ websites to ensure that you haven’t accidentally made a similar design for your site. It will be nearly impossible to stand out from the pack if your site is too similar to everyone else’s. Your site will be considered as a copycat of your competitors’ and not seem trustworthy.
This article covers the basics of website design and the more you learn, the better your experience will be. As you learn techniques and strategies, you can better understand site design and how to translate the knowledge into a well-designed site. Reread the tips here if you need to refresh your understanding.