A large part of a website's success or failure depends on the quality of its web design. Making sure to follow the rules of web design that have been established will make sure that people find your website to be appealing and easy to access. In contrast, if you design your site poorly, then visitors might just leave your site quickly without ever taking time to figure out what your business has to offer. Here are some suggestions that will help you make smart decisions about the design of your site.
Whatever your design is like aesthetically, be sure all your files are small. Large files take longer to load when people visit your website. You want your website to load very quickly when potential clients visit. Even though broadband is common these days, there are still people stuck on 56K connections. Run tests to ensure that even dial-up users report a smooth user experience.
Competency with multiple platforms will come in handy if you intend to set up multiple websites. Learning many different web platforms such as Java, MySQL and PHP will only serve to make you better going forward. Take the time to develop skills that can be applied across multiple platforms, regardless of whether your needs are personal or professional.
A web designer's work can be made easier when they compile a collection of cheat sheets that can be referred to for example code, as well as checklists to mark off when necessary components have been implemented. Use these same resources when you decide to improve or update your website.
Give your website a vivid title. Perform an online search for the phrase "untitled document". As you can see, failure to include a title is a very common mistake. It is imperative that you give your website an appropriate name. Search engines weigh titles heavily in their ranking algorithms, so make sure every page has a good one.
Ensure that you're including a method of receiving feedback from your site's visitors. This way, you will know what you're doing right and wrong and you can fix any problems that your visitors are coming across so others don't have to deal with the same issues. Involving your visitors in your website can help to bond them to your brand and bring them back time and time again.
Do not hire a loved one to assist in designing your website. Don't hire a loved one to create your website. It can be difficult to fire a person you know well if you're not happy with the results.
Free web hosting is not intended for a commercial website. A free web hosting service will place advertisements for other products on your site that could distract your potential customers. A paid, professional hosting service is the way you need to go.
If you are a web designer, it is good to be an artist. Be open-minded and, when you have an idea, record it so you won't forget it. Keep a notepad or PDA with you so you can sketch out ideas no matter where you are. If inspiration strikes at the office, VPN to your home computer and put the idea in a text file so you can use it later.
Use your friends or colleagues as a source for refreshing your information from the various design elements you use. You want to make sure that all of the information that you learned was truly retained; the last thing you need is to be in the middle of making a site and become lost or confused.
Speed is the governing factor of the Internet and it is imperative to ensure your web site loads at a fast pace. If a visitor needs to wait while the page loads, they may click off your site and not return.
Meta tags used on each page of your site, can increase visitors to your site. This is an important design consideration. You need to spend some time on creating high quality meta tags so that search engines can classify your site properly. If you have poorly thought out the meta tags that have no reflection on what your sites content is, you will not be getting many visitors.
A web design that is easy on the eyes, in addition to being easy to use, can make a big difference in the success of your website. A site that is well-designed encourages visitors to stay, come back and share, resulting in a big boost in traffic. The opposite is true for poor web design, it may discourage people from entering your traffic. Follow the web design advice you've just read to guarantee the success of your website.
