There are many different uses for websites. It can be a social networking tool, an entertainment portal or a place to get information. Regardless of how a website is used, it needs a webmaster who knows what he is doing to design it right. Here are a few web design tips to help you create your own website for any purpose.
If you want your site to bring in more visitors, you should ensure it's simple to navigate. Your links need to be prominently placed, easy to understand and functional. Menus also make site navigation much easier. Make sure each page has a 'home' link.
Always ensure you are giving meaningful feedback, as this is what creates the communication between a website and its visitors. For example, if an action taken by a visitor results in an error, do not simply display "error occurred."� Instead, provide a message that explains what happened and how the visitor can correct the error by taking a different action. Without this feedback, visitors are more likely to grow frustrated and just give up by leaving your website.
Don't have pop-ups. There is not a person out there who will want to visit a website and get overwhelmed with pop-up ads. Many people will close a site immediately if it uses pop-ups, even if it's a site run by a well-known brand or company. Avoid those annoying ads to keep your customers content. If you are required by your hosting service to have pop-up ads, you may want to consider obtaining a new web host.
Regular newsletters attract repeat website visitors. Having customers subscribe to your newsletter allows you to send them important updates about special events, which in turn can get them to keep visiting your site. Put a form for registration on a sidebar or somewhere visible, yet not interfering with the page's purpose. Only send out a newsletter to people who have subscribed to it, otherwise you will have angry customers.
To be updated on the new web design tricks, you should join an online forum. When joining these message boards you meet people who usually have an understanding of all the new web design technology. Without this new web design technology you could end up with a site that is completely outdated.
Add a search feature to a website. When visitors come to your website, they want to easily be able to find what they are looking for. A keyword search feature will make it easy for people to find the right page on your site, especially if the website you are designing is very complex.
Pay attention to your background colors and your text colors when designing a site. Something like red text on a blue background doesn't work well. And if you think that white text will pop with a black background, it could be a little too bright for your readers. Go with something subtle.
Forums are going to be your best friend in the next few weeks, this is because there's a lot of information to be gained from various forums where you have the ability to gain endless amounts of knowledge from people all over the world. So check out what websites and forums can help you along your way with web design.
Take a poll of your target audience before you begin designing your website, so you know what they would be interested in seeing on your site. This will help you design the pages and create the features of your site. When you get advice from the audience you're targeting it can help you with what your site should be like.
When designing a website, you want to keep the privacy of your customer's information in mind. Set up proper encryption for submitting data, and never store customer passwords and such in a text document. Make sure you set up your website properly so that your customers know that visiting and interacting with your site is safe.
Graphics and various media are great for your site and help keep the attention of the viewers, but don't load every page from top-to-bottom. Pages that are extremely heavy with media will consume bandwidth on yours and the viewer's network, which often leaves both parties suffering. Include graphics when they are relevant and do your best to minimize bandwidth consumption.
Do repetitive testing on your website to make sure it works once each development milestone is reached. Each time you add something new, have someone take a look and give you impartial feedback. While you may not think your videos are loading slowly, a objective opinion may not agree. Ensure you get the opinions of many people to better your site.
For some people, their bandwidth is very low, and you need to consider this when putting videos up on your site. If you post videos at 5,000 kb/s, some people's connections won't be able to keep up. It will not only take forever to load on a slower connection, but will likely go unviewed by people who have neither the time nor the bandwidth allowance to see it.
Make the web page sizes the smallest they can be. This will help your site load much faster overall. The faster your pages load, the more likely your visitors will stick around to view more of your site. If your site is too bulky in terms of page size, you may be in danger of having your visitor bounce to another website out of frustration.
Ask for feedback about the design of your site. Your opinion and other's opinions may differ from the designers. If you're able, get some of your target audience to try your site out and provide feedback.
From the onset, it is best to avoid using free web hosting services if you own a commercial website. These services can cause you a lot of problems and lost business in the future. Although free always sounds good, especially to someone starting up a business, these hosts will crowd your site with all kinds of ads which you have no control over. This is not good business and you will be giving your hard earned traffic and business name to the web host and potentially chasing customers away.
As previously stated, websites have many purposes, like providing entertainment, communication, and information. Creating a website for any purpose requires design knowledge. Utilize these suggestions to maximize your efforts.
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