You may wonder if it is necessary to use costly and unique web templates to create your site. That depends on what you will learn. If you don’t have the time or energy to learn about web design, then you will end up having to use a tool made by someone else. However, if you have the time and energy to put in to the project, then keep reading and be willing to take the plunge.
It is important to choose great graphics for your website development. Keep in mind that bitmap images are quit large. For this reason, they don’t work well; however, PNG images work very well indeed. GIFs can be quite good for simple text buttons, screenshots, etc and PNGs are great for images with 256 colors and up. For photos, JPEG images work well.
Color combinations are key in branding your website. Your content should be read easily without assistance or adjustment. Using dark colored text on a light colored background generally ensures that the text is easy for visitors to read. Let your friends see your color scheme to get their input.
On the Internet, few things are more important to users than speed and efficiency, especially where page loading times are concerned. No visitor is going to wait more than a few seconds for your page to load, so ensure they get what they want quickly so they don’t go to your competition’s website instead.
You must create a website that is easily navigable to attract and keep traffic. Ensure that links are easy discovered and displayed in a prominent location. Good menus make navigating your site much easier. To help visitors find their way back, be sure to have a visible link to the main page on all your pages.
Make certain that visitors have a way to search for a particular topic on your site. If someone is looking for something on your site, they want to search for a box to help them search. If this option is unavailable, they may leave the site for one that allows a search. Always place the box at the top right of the page, as this is the first place visitors tend to look for one.
Keep your website fresh and free of dated content. If the page a viewer clicks on is promoting something that happened a year ago, you just lost a reader. Users will spend time on websites that are well-maintained, and the presence of your outdated information will tell them that your site it not being properly cared for. Be certain to review your website on a regular basis to remove outdated items and add fresh, new content.
A good key to remember is that your site should load in 10 seconds or less. A well designed website will show up on a browser within moments. Most visitors want things to happen quickly and easily. If you don’t offer that to them, you will lose those visitors.
Keep your topics separate. Each different topic should have a separate page on your website. This will keep things clear and simple for readers, and also help you rank with search engines.
Be sure your introductory page is clean and simple. People surfing the web will quickly decide if they are going to delve into a website based on the front page. While you should describe the purpose of your business and what it offers, reduce distractions be keeping all else to a bare minimum.
Check links carefully before you include them on your site. Make sure the links all lead to valid web addresses. You should do this before uploading something to your server. It is incredibly important to keep broken links to a minimum. If visitors encounter them often, they will disappointed and no longer come to your site. Give all of your links a double check before uploading in order to prevent this problem.
Don’t rely solely on the design tools provided by the host to build your site. You want to integrate your own personality into this site, and this means tweaking and adding some things on your own without the drag-and-drop site-builder the host offers.
Before you start building your first site, you need to learn about as many successful techniques as possible. This is the fastest route to getting the job done. You can avoid shoddy work by sticking with expert advice.
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. That way, you ensure you won’t make beginner mistakes, and you also have a greater chance of becoming a professional yourself since you continue to learn.
Each time you make a change to your site, look at your statistics. This will allow you to determine your target audience and see how they are using your pages. You can use this information to edit your site.
Allow yourself a set amount of time every day in which you can focus on designing your site. Make sure that you schedule out larger blocks of time during your day, so that you actually make some real progress rather than trying to work on tidbits here and there. If you are committed to learning new things as you develop your site, it will become easier to remember the skills that you gain.
Designing a website is easier than most things in life. You don’t need a formal education, and you aren’t making any life or death decisions. Just follow the strategies you learn above, and you could create a good website today.