A website can have a number of purposes. It might be used to entertain visitors, inform a constituency, or communicate with your customers and colleagues. No matter what its use, all websites require a knowledgeable webmaster so they can be designed properly. The following paragraphs offer good ideas you can use to make great websites.
Fixed-position navigation is useful to visitors. This means locking down the site’s navigation panel into position when the visitor scrolls up and down the webpage. You can use this both to allow your visitor to navigate more easily, and to keep your call to action in view.
Your website needs to have easy navigation, if you want to have multiple visitors. You should have links that are easy to find, as well as displayed well. Menus also make site navigation much easier. Make sure that you have links posted to every page of the website. This will allow visitors to easily navigate the site.
Always look over your website in many types of browsers, as you are designing it. Make sure it looks good on every browser. Research all the commonly used browsers and design accordingly. Make sure to also send the site to someone running a different OS to make sure those browsers are compatible.
Do not use frames; that is old school. Frames were in heavy use during the beginning days of the Internet, but they were very flawed. Frame designs make it harder for readers to bookmark your site and scrolling becomes a chore. You have much better options with which to help visitors go through the site.
Speed is critical online, so you have to be certain that your website pages load very quickly. Your visitors are more likely to lose interest in your website and leave the page if they have to wait for a few minutes before having access to the content.
Use shortcuts. In web design, there are lots of shortcuts that will decrease the amount of time it takes to do things. For example, there are HTML codes that can let you make quick changes to your site without needing to re-upload the page.
Include an easy way for visitors to search your site content. If those visiting your site are looking for something specific, the first thing they will look for is a search box. If your site does not have one, expect them to find a site that does. Always place the box at the top right of the page, as this is the first place visitors tend to look for one.
Let people cancel any action they have started. For example, put a “clear” button on a form, an unsubscribe link on all newsletters and a “cancel” button on orders. If you do not give your users the option to cancel something, then you are making them do something, which can cause users to be leery of making future purchases or coming back to your website at all.
As you already know, websites can provide content, communication and entertainment. You must understand design in order to fulfill it. Take these tips to heart and create a website to be proud of.
Do not go overboard in using lots of fonts when creating your website. You have to consider how the fonts you choose display on computer screens. Some are simply too hard to read. Many sites make use of Verdana, as it can be read in many sizes and colors.