While making a website is not all that hard, there is a little bit of learning and planning that goes into it. It ranges from the first planning phase to the fine tuning of each image and border on every page. When you jump in without knowledge, you will face obstacles. Let this article help you prepare for the challenges you might face.
If you’re creating a website, you must look at it in more than one browser. Different browsers show websites in different ways. Research the most popular browsers and fix your site accordingly. In addition, let someone who uses an operating system that differs from yours check the site for compatibility.
A site that is going to be successful must work with all browsers. This is why it is vital that you test all your pages to ensure that they properly display in all the various browsers. While a certain element may look wonderful in Firefox, it may appear incorrectly on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Safari. Test how your pages display with all major browsers prior to launch.
You will want to make sure you stay up-to-date with new information on website design found in various places around the Internet. Do an Internet search on web page design to find numerous free sites and forums.
Check your pages for broken links. When a visitor clicks on one, they’ll be frustrated. Most people choose one of the many programs or extensions available that verify working links but it can also be completed manually if you only have a few to do.
Your website should be able to be scanned without problems. Tests have shown that the majority of online readers avoid reading everything on a page; instead, they just scan it for information that is of importance to them. Divide your content into sections that readers can readily scan and your visitors will come back for more. Also, make sure to keep the most important information at the top. Each of these things needs to be given proper attention because they are what will help keep visitors coming back to your website.
Be aware of your background. There are sites out there that use animated GIF images for their backgrounds. This might be OK for a personal site, but it can also be a serious distraction that makes it hard for readers to focus on the text. Choose a background which complements your website, and your visitors will find it much easier to read your message.
Keep the front page of your website simple. People judge a site and whether they want to go further by what the initial webpage looks like. Be descriptive when you talk about your business and what you offer that is unique, but keep other information minimal to avoid your visitors getting distracted.
Excellent Free Tools
You can build yourself a fine website using only free software. Many people falsely believe that they need to purchase expensive software in order to create a good website, however, there are currently numerous excellent free tools on the market that help you to develop a very professional looking website. Do some searching and you’ll find some excellent free tools to use.
Use shortcuts when designing your website. Nearly everything in web design has a shortcut, and if you check them out carefully, you can find quicker ways to accomplish most items. It doesn’t take that long to learn about the HTML code that you can insert into your website’s design to help you edit any page without having to upload the page again.
Make sure to include a way to get feedback from site visitors. That will allow you to fix any problems that you may not otherwise notice. Giving your visitors a voice makes them much more likely to return to your site and continue the conversation.
Don’t allow pop-ups on your website. They may seem helpful, but they are seen as more annoying by visitors than not. When you annoy your visitors with these popup adverts, they will more than likely leave your website and vow never to return.
Refrain from including frames on your site. Frames are good for some situations, but they don’t allow your content to be indexed. If there is important information that you want the search engines to see on your website, never put it within a frame. When that occurs you do not get many visitors.
Avoid pop-ups. There is not a person out there who will want to visit a website and get overwhelmed with pop-up ads. Even large, popular websites can lose visitors by mistakenly employing pop-up ads. Stay away from these types of annoying ads, and your customers will be happier. If the pop-ups are coming about because of your host, then now is the time to start shopping for a replacement.
You must be sure that your site is optimized properly so that it can be viewed in all browsers. Many consumers still depend on IE. Since many elements are not up-to-date you will have to work around it. Looking up “box model bug” can be very helpful.
Always use fonts that look professional and are readable. You can see if a site looks professional by looking at the fonts. Do not use Comic Sans, overly ornate fonts, or fonts that many computers might not have. In case your user’s browser cannot display the font your website uses, a secondary font can be set. Your site can look bad when this happens.
Do not add pop-up advertisements to your site. PPC ads are often necessary, but pop-up ads just tick visitors off. It will end up driving visitors away instead of getting them to read and click. Keep simple, non-intrusive adds on your website.
There are free applications that will help you create your site. Do not listen to people who tell you that you can’t design and operate a website without relying on pricey software packages; you can find a free alternative for virtually every task. You just have to search a little to locate the free tools that best suit you.
To get you started on designing your first website, you need to get good advice. Becoming better educated on web page design is the best way to build a high-quality site. If you don’t spend time learning, you’ll never get better.
Web Design
Your focus after reading this article should be understanding the fundamental basics of web design. After you begin learning about web design, you’ll be able to develop more and more intricate websites. Continue learning and you will be a pro in no time.
Do not go overboard in using lots of fonts when creating your website. 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. Verdana is used by most sites. It is easy to read in various sizes and colors.