If you want your business to succeed, you must have a well designed website. When done properly, you will be ahead of the competition. Many people do not know how to develop a great looking website. Use these tips when designing a website.
256 Colors
A great place to build your web design knowledge is through forums. This will help you learn more about starting and maintaining your web design. Use your preferred search engine to get sound information that will help you learn for free.
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. Try using PNGs for images that are not photos or text buttons or if an image has over 256 colors. Use GIFs for something with less than 256 colors. For pictures, use JPEG images.
Minimize page sizes and loading times. Many users have slow connections and when a page takes too long, they will quickly loss interest. Don’t waste their time or your own.
You should update your content and get rid of expired content regularly. If your website is advertising a festival that occurred three months ago, your readers will just leave. Users are careful with their time and if they can tell that your site is not updated often, they will leave. Make it a point to regularly update your content, and replace dated information with current things.
Avoid frames! The are very 90’s. Frames were terrific in the burgeoning web design days, but they had their problems too. Frame designs make the bookmarking difficult on your visitors, and it also makes scrolling a chore as well. There are better ways to allow your users to browse your pages easily.
Don’t overuse JavaScript. For some people visiting your site, Java will cause problems instead of providing improved functionality. There are many different web browsers that people use and they are constantly being updated with new features. Some of your readers are not going to have the most recently updated version of their browser. They may also not have enabled JavaScript in their browser. This means that a portion of your visitors won’t be able to use your website.
Become educated on shortcuts and frequently use them. In the world of website design, shortcuts are common place. Look into them and you will discover that they can help with most things. For example, you can use certain HTML codes to make very quick changes without needing to re-load.
Always separate topics. Each topic should be put on separate pages. This will reduce visitor confusion and facilitate readability by the search engines.
The faster a web page loads, the more it will be appreciated. You should minimize the loading time of your site’s pages. If your website takes ages to load, they will wash their hands of your site and find one that loads in a reasonable amount of time.
Search Engine
Research your keywords. Your customers should always be the top focus, but search engine optimization is still necessary to bring those customers to your pages. Knowing which keywords are the ones that will draw search engine visitors to your site is essential if you want to become successful.
Don’t forget about Internet Explorer 7 and 8. Most people have a love-hate relationship with IE; however, many people are still using it, including older versions. They don’t render many elements in compliance with web standards, so workarounds are required. Make sure to look at the infamous “box model bug,” which has been an issue for IE for several years.
Check for broken links before publishing a page. Visitors will be annoyed if they click on broken links. Feel free to manually check them or use some programs to scan and report the broken links.
Develop good time management skills as you are creating a website to help you get it done on time. Creating websites has a lot of little tasks, so you may be tempted to procrastinate. Next thing you know, the small tasks have grown in numbers. Complete those tasks as they show up.
You will gain expertise in design much more quickly if you dedicate the time to learn something new at every step. When you figure out a certain portion of website design, you need to explore another one. Doing this can add time to designing a website early on, but later you’ll be such a pro that you can crank sites out in droves.
As you have seen, great web design can make or break your online presence. You can stand head and shoulders above the crowd if your website creation is right. That said, you need to learn all you can. These tips will help you design more effectively.
Make sure that you get rid of any material that is outdated on your site. If a reader lands on your page and sees an expired offer, it will definitely be a deal-breaker. Viewers want to know that they are getting up-to-date information, and lack of attention in removing old products will not install this faith. Create a schedule that will help you manage information and specials, and remind you to take down useless items.