Website design can often seem challenging. Once you have learned more on this subject, you will come to the realization that it is not really that difficult. Use these basic techniques for a website that is attractive, easy to navigate and informative.
When developing a website, you must check out how it looks in various browsers. You have to make sure that you’re seeing your site through the eyes of all customers. Design your site with the limitations of the different browsers in mind. In addition, let someone who uses an operating system that differs from yours check the site for compatibility.
Set up your site so that visitors can cancel actions they initiate if they change their minds. An action can be classified as completing a form or registering to receive content, like a newsletter. You will inevitably lose repeat customers if you force them to follow through on a purchase that they have decided against for now.
Ensure people can easily scan your information. There are a plethora of tests online that help gauge the usability of a particular website. Emphasized text broken into easily scannable sections can help your viewers want to return to your site. You should put the important stuff on top. Your visitors will enjoy their time on the website more.
Allow your visitors to contact you through email, a contact form, comments or social media. You will learn what is missing or misunderstood, and be able to make changes as needed. Give your visitors a sense of engagement so that they will return to your website in the future.
No matter how aesthetically designed your site is, make sure all files have smaller file sizes. The sizes of the files affect the loading time of your site. You want your site to load instantly. Remember that not all people who visit your site will have a high-speed connection to the Internet. Check your site, and make sure that it can load quickly even with a slow dial-up internet connection.
Alt Tags
Use ALT tags on your images. Those who are visually impaired will benefit greatly from ALT tags. Even if you use links for your images, the ALT tags will help to explain what the link does. ALT tags are also used by crawlers for search engines, so they can even boost your search ranking.
Step up your creativity when you write your site’s “About Us” page. Many websites that you see will have boring pages for this area. Make it a little more exciting! Let people know a bit about you and what inspired you to get into website development and other things like that.
Be sure to always look at the links on your site, and make sure none are broken. Do this each time you upload new content to your site. You need to check links frequently because visitors will click on your links. If many of your links are broken, visitors will give up on exploring your site. To keep this from happening, check everything to make sure that it works.
The design tools which come with your web hosting account are a great way to practice your skills, but they are no replacement for real design know-how. Eventually you want to incorporate your own ideas into the site, which means lots of tinkering and experimenting with different things without having to rely on the simple functions of the site-builder you get from the host provider.
It is wise to buy some books that will help you learn how to web page design successfully. First, read books for the beginner and advance from there.
Learning from the experts can be done in person, online through chat or email, through their personal or professional blog or even through books they’ve written. This will help you become a professional yourself.
A search feature needs to be integrated into the home page and any subsequent pages to follow. This is vital to maximizing the usability of your site, and helping your vistors find what they need. Site searches are easy to implement; the result will be worth the effort.
Open Source
You should understand that it shouldn’t be costly to design your site. When it comes to the tools you need for website design, with a little effort, you can find very cost-effective alternatives to top-of-the-line high-priced software. Open source applications can often do the same job as applications that cost money. You can realize significant savings by seeking out such open source alternatives for your software needs.
Remember literacy levels as you write your content. Not everyone viewing your page will have graduated Harvard with a medical degree and some may have not even learned to read longer than a year or two ago. Your content is useless to your visitors if they can’t understand it.
By now, you should realize that website development is not such a mystery after all. As you gain knowledge, your web page design skills will bring your site closer to your vision. Use the guidelines from this article to create an effective and interesting website much faster then you might imagine.