Designing your own website can be very daunting, especially when you lack experience. Use the advice in this article to learn what this will entail, and how you can make it happen.
Make sure that a tagline is prominently displayed on your website. Using a tagline simply means that you will need to come up with a quick statement that lets visitors know what your site is all about. You only have about 10 seconds to gain and keep hold of your visitors’ attention from the time they first hit your site.
The graphics you use are important. Many people no longer use use bitmap graphics because the files are large and take longer to load. Try GIF, PNG or JPEG files instead. PNG should be used for buttons with text and screenshots that have 256 colors or more. JPEG files are best for photographs.
Choose your color scheme wisely. Choose a font and color that will help your words stand out from the background. In general, you want to use a dark font color and a lighter background. Let some of your friends see your site and give you some advice before going live.
By testing the way your website will work in different browsers, you can ensure that the maximum number of visitors see your site they way you want them to. A site that works on Internet Explorer might not display right in Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari. Before you website is launched, test the display of each page in all major browsers.
Design web pages to not take up too much space. Some Internet users have slow connections, and they will grow impatient with your site. You don’t need visitors having pages get stuck every time they load because they may just leave your site and not return.
Use shortcuts often. Just about everything in web design has some sort of shortcut and learning what it is can save you a lot of time. You can even learn HTML codes that will allow for quick changes across all your pages without needing to redo them one by one.
When a user enters personal information into a form on your website, give the user the option to have the server retain that information should it be needed again. For instance, if a visitor registers for your newsletter and they are going to use the same information to make a purchase, be sure the data they’ve already entered is kept, so they do not have to re-enter the same information. “Sticky” data will ensure that the user fills out all the forms they need to instead of leaving when it becomes too difficult.
Familiarizing yourself with Photoshop and using it from the very beginning of your web designing efforts can improve the results you achieve right from day one. Even without professional training, a web designer with a good grasp of Photoshop can turn out attractive, useful websites very quickly. If you don’t use Photoshop, you may find that it will take you a long time to be able to gain the knowledge needed to make a nice website.
Older Versions
When the time comes that you must choose your webpage’s background color, be mindful of the effectiveness and conservative choice that white is. Content is generally more readable on white backgrounding, and this makes your page look both more professional and trustworthy. Crazy backgrounds can just cause confusion and make your content become lost. It also tends to make your webpage look much less professional. Make your background as simple as possible.
Optimize your site for older versions of Internet Explorer (IE7 and IE8). Although many people loathe Internet Explorer, many people surfing the Internet do it on older versions of this web browser. Workarounds are needed because the browser is not 100% compliant with standards. An example would be the vexing “box model bug” which troubled IE for quite some time.
Designing a website is an exciting opportunity to promote your business and reach your target audience. When done correctly, website creation helps you effectively promote and market your business. Begin now, and utilize the excellent tips given in the above article so that you can maximize your chance of success.