From blogs to storefronts, great web design is always key in presenting your content to the world. Who will trust what you have to say if your site looks unprofessional? The information contained in this article will help you to build a website which looks great, functions cleanly and brings you the traffic you deserve!
Choosing the right graphics can either make or break a website. Keep in mind that PNGs are much better than large and poorly working bitmap images. For text buttons, screenshots, and other images that are not photographs, use PNG for images with over 256 colors and GIF for images with less. For photos, you can use JPEG images.
Don’t try to fit too much onto one page when you’re designing a website. If your page is too busy it will take a lot longer to load and can overwhelm visitors. When you’re going to be putting up a lot of content, create pages for everything you can to reduce the clutter on your page.
Speed is king when it comes to webpages, so be sure that your images are loading quickly. If Internet users have to wait a long time for your website to load, they will probably leave your site before it loads and vow never to return.
Use images wisely. Bitmap images do not tend to fare well for internet use, and some GIFs do not work well with lots of color. Image size is important as well, as larger images may make your viewers have to wait for them to download. Choose smaller images, and use them sparingly to make your site more manageable.
To help your website visitors easily navigate through your site, design it so that it becomes easy to find “stuff.” When you have a simple site that makes it easy to locate information, you keep your visitors there much longer. If you make it difficult for them, then they will get frustrated and leave.
If you plan on having a commercial site, you should seriously consider buying your own web hosting. Most free host sites force you to display their advertisements, which is counter-intuitive if you are attempting to sell something as well. Purchase your own hosting to avoid this advertising hassle, so that you can choose your own ads.
Your links should always contain content in text form on every page you insert them. Links with content should be visible enough to show the viewer what they’re clicking. If your links don’t have text, they may not be helpful.
Try including real customer testimonials. Very few want to be the first to try a product or service, so let customers know that others have tried your wares and that they were pleased with them. Try asking some clients that have done projects with you to create a short paragraph about their experience with your company, to put on your site.
I hope you’ve learned from this article and feel confident that you’re ready to get started in the world of web design. Whether you are just starting to create your own site or you plan to build websites as a career, your first step is learning how it’s done. Now you can move on to the fun stuff, enjoy!
