Designing your own website is key in promoting yourself or your business online. A beautiful, highly functional site will tell visitors that you are professional, trustworthy and an expert in your field. Learning what it takes to design cleanly and efficiently is your first step, so continue reading for some tips which will teach you just that. Provide a navigation menu on every page of your site. While this menu does not have to link every single page of your site, as this could be an exhaustive list if you have a very large site, it should provide links to the main pages. This ensures that your visitors do not have to return to the home page and start completely over when it is not necessary. A great tip for every web designer out there is to research their target audience. Understanding what type of people will be using the site is an excellent way to decide how to build it. Make sure it is a site that the target audience will be comfortable using. For the best layout, make sure that the colors you choose for the background and font are restful to the eyes. Choosing moving backgrounds or neon colors can make it hard for people to read, and they may navigate to another web site. However, include pictures to break up your content and make the site complete. Avoid using animated GIFs on your site. These were popular in the late 1990s, but newer technologies have replaced the uses for animated GIFs that were actually useful. Animated GIFs are low in quality and large in file size. Use static icons for page elements and actual video files for complex animations. Keep things as simple as they can be on any given page. Web surfers are known to have limited attention spans, and the more things you pile into a web design, the more lost and confused you may make your visitors. Instead, follow the 'less is more' mantra. This will also help your search engine optimization, as the more focused your page is, the more likely the search engine spiders can rank your page effectively. It can be very beneficial to include a greeting video on your main page, but be sure that it does not auto-play. You want to be sure that your visitors are given the option to watch it. Some visitors may back right out of your site if you make it auto-play on their arrival. Never bite off more than you can chew by attempting to design multiple sites at once. You should keep things simple by only working on one site at a time. Even if you do have some web design skills, you may get crossed up with your projects, or one of your sites may suffer neglect. Just take things one at a time. Use "white space" to your advantage. "White space" doesn't have to be white, it is simply blank space on your web pages. The internet is all about visibility, so when designing your website, make sure that you don't clutter the screen with text and pictures. White space makes it easier for your users to read your webpages, which means they will be more comfortable with your site. Where you can, recycle certain pieces of your site like navigation bars and logos. Not only does this help with creating some sort of brand consistency to your website, it also helps speed up the page load times for your visitors. Web browsers will cache these pieces upon first load, making them quicker to reappear the next time they are found on a page. Include a links page for your site and use it to provide a variety of resources related to the site's purpose. You should also include a variety of links, including links to sites that are offering backlinks to your site. If related sites link back to your site, your site ranking will move up in the rankings on search results pages. Ask your friends and family for advice on how your web site or sites are developing. You want to see if what you're creating is actually enticing to people when they come visit, you don't want to make a whole site that no one is going to enjoy, this can hurt your overall progress. If you find yourself stuck in the design process, remember that you have the entire Internet at your disposal to look for examples. There are literally millions of websites that you can browse to find the inspiration that you need. Find a website that you like, identify what makes that website appealing, and determine if it is an idea that you can borrow and improve upon. Keep in mind that in order for your website to be truly successful, it is not enough to simply borrow ideas. You must also improve upon them. Always utilize media and content that is both relative to your site's goal, but also interesting to the potential consumers who will be viewing your site. A site that has relative info, but that is not interesting, won't captivate its audience. A website that uses fun, but non-relative information, will captivate the wrong audience. Both methods equal profits that you are losing. Step one was to learn how to build a site, and step two is to get down to work and create your design. Use the tips you've read here to assist you as you draft the layout, build the navigation and write content for your audience. Continue learning how to increase your traffic and you'll meet your goals in no time!
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Steps On How To Create Good Quality Web Design
Designing your own website is key in promoting yourself or your business online. A beautiful, highly functional site will tell visitors that you are professional, trustworthy and an expert in your field. Learning what it takes to design cleanly and efficiently is your first step, so continue reading for some tips which will teach you just that. Provide a navigation menu on every page of your site. While this menu does not have to link every single page of your site, as this could be an exhaustive list if you have a very large site, it should provide links to the main pages. This ensures that your visitors do not have to return to the home page and start completely over when it is not necessary. A great tip for every web designer out there is to research their target audience. Understanding what type of people will be using the site is an excellent way to decide how to build it. Make sure it is a site that the target audience will be comfortable using. For the best layout, make sure that the colors you choose for the background and font are restful to the eyes. Choosing moving backgrounds or neon colors can make it hard for people to read, and they may navigate to another web site. However, include pictures to break up your content and make the site complete. Avoid using animated GIFs on your site. These were popular in the late 1990s, but newer technologies have replaced the uses for animated GIFs that were actually useful. Animated GIFs are low in quality and large in file size. Use static icons for page elements and actual video files for complex animations. Keep things as simple as they can be on any given page. Web surfers are known to have limited attention spans, and the more things you pile into a web design, the more lost and confused you may make your visitors. Instead, follow the 'less is more' mantra. This will also help your search engine optimization, as the more focused your page is, the more likely the search engine spiders can rank your page effectively. It can be very beneficial to include a greeting video on your main page, but be sure that it does not auto-play. You want to be sure that your visitors are given the option to watch it. Some visitors may back right out of your site if you make it auto-play on their arrival. Never bite off more than you can chew by attempting to design multiple sites at once. You should keep things simple by only working on one site at a time. Even if you do have some web design skills, you may get crossed up with your projects, or one of your sites may suffer neglect. Just take things one at a time. Use "white space" to your advantage. "White space" doesn't have to be white, it is simply blank space on your web pages. The internet is all about visibility, so when designing your website, make sure that you don't clutter the screen with text and pictures. White space makes it easier for your users to read your webpages, which means they will be more comfortable with your site. Where you can, recycle certain pieces of your site like navigation bars and logos. Not only does this help with creating some sort of brand consistency to your website, it also helps speed up the page load times for your visitors. Web browsers will cache these pieces upon first load, making them quicker to reappear the next time they are found on a page. Include a links page for your site and use it to provide a variety of resources related to the site's purpose. You should also include a variety of links, including links to sites that are offering backlinks to your site. If related sites link back to your site, your site ranking will move up in the rankings on search results pages. Ask your friends and family for advice on how your web site or sites are developing. You want to see if what you're creating is actually enticing to people when they come visit, you don't want to make a whole site that no one is going to enjoy, this can hurt your overall progress. If you find yourself stuck in the design process, remember that you have the entire Internet at your disposal to look for examples. There are literally millions of websites that you can browse to find the inspiration that you need. Find a website that you like, identify what makes that website appealing, and determine if it is an idea that you can borrow and improve upon. Keep in mind that in order for your website to be truly successful, it is not enough to simply borrow ideas. You must also improve upon them. Always utilize media and content that is both relative to your site's goal, but also interesting to the potential consumers who will be viewing your site. A site that has relative info, but that is not interesting, won't captivate its audience. A website that uses fun, but non-relative information, will captivate the wrong audience. Both methods equal profits that you are losing. Step one was to learn how to build a site, and step two is to get down to work and create your design. Use the tips you've read here to assist you as you draft the layout, build the navigation and write content for your audience. Continue learning how to increase your traffic and you'll meet your goals in no time!
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