Websites are used for many different purposes. A website can be used to store information, as a social network, or for just plain old entertainment. Whatever the purpose of a site, it ought to be designed properly. The following article will give you some great ideas for creating your own website.
Take the time to scour boards and forums for new techniques that work for others. This is how we develop our skill set and stay one step ahead of our competition who wait for things to dwindle before taking action. There is no end to the excellent websites on the Internet that offer free advice for the taking.
Choose the right graphic formats for your site. Keep in mind that bitmaps don’t usually work well, while PNGs do. 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. You can use Jpegs for photos.
Be careful with your color schemes while designing your site. Your text should remain the main focus of attention and should be easy to read. Dark text colors on light backgrounds are usually easier to read compared to the other way around. Ask someone to look at your color schemes to ensure you are making the right choice.
It is essential to test the pages in your website to be certain they look as they should on every different browser; a successful site needs to display correctly in all browsers. What works in Internet Explorer may not necessarily show up correctly in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. Prior to going live with your website, see how your pages look on every popular browser.
Don’t make your page sizes any larger than necessary. Not everyone who uses the Internet enjoys speedy connections, so they are likely to lose interest if your site takes a long time to load. Reduce your load times so visitors have no reason to leave.
Keep your topics separated. Break up pages by discussion. This not only eliminates customer confusion, but it also helps you out with search engine crawlers and your site rankings.
Be vigilant in policing your website for content that has become obsolete or outdated. If a reader lands on your page and sees an expired offer, it will definitely be a deal-breaker. Internet users want to have access to the latest information and read websites with regular updates. Create a schedule that will help you manage information and specials, and remind you to take down useless items.
A search function should always be included when you develop a site that is very large. People have become accustomed to search boxes being in the upper-right corner of the page, so put it there. These should let you at least search for one term, but it’s better if it allows multiple terms. Google and FreeFind both offer search functions for your website.
Be conscious of your background. There are certain websites that utilize animated GIFs for their backgrounds. While such backgrounds can be attractive in some cases, they can also make it difficult to read the content on your website. Choose a background which complements your website, and your visitors will find it much easier to read your message.
Alt Tags
Apart from the aesthetics of your website, remember that all files included must be small. This is because the size of your website’s files directly affects its loading time. It is always better to have your website load as fast as possible. The other factor to bear in mind is not all visitors access through high-speed connections. Test to be sure that even computers with slow dial-up modems can connect quickly to your website.
Use ALT tags for your images when designing your site. If someone cannot pull up the image, these tags let them know what should be in the space. If you use images as links, you can describe the link. ALT tags are also used by crawlers and this can boost your ranking.
Optimize your site for older versions of Internet Explorer (IE7 and IE8). Although many people loathe Internet Explorer, many people surfing the Internet do it on older versions of this web browser. Workarounds are often necessary when standard elements can’t be rendered. It is important that you are familiar with “box model bug” which has harmed IE for awhile now.
Be sure your site can handle Internet Explorer, both new and old versions. People may say they dislike Internet Explorer, but a majority of them still use it. Unfortunately, many aspects of your site may not be compatible or displayed properly due to outdated rendering standards, so you may have to create some fixes for the elements that do not work properly. It is important that you are familiar with “box model bug” which has harmed IE for awhile now.
Try using easy, maintainable and clear navigation. Navigation links help ensure a visitor can successfully navigate the website. You need a neat navigation structure that is consistent and easy to use for viewers to better use and enjoy your site.
Test your site on multiple browsers, platforms (Windows 7, Windows XP, Linux, etc.) and devices (Mac, PC, tablets, cell phones, etc.) Every browser will interpret the site slightly differently. Some of the slight differences can cause navigation to be difficult for the user. Using available resources, determine which browsers are the most popular among your target demographic. Make sure to view your site in the most-used web browsers and as many mobile browsers as possible.
If you’ve got ideas for more than one site, you should go ahead and get the domain names now. Use your creativity and imagination when doing this. There are many people who have similar ideas. You would think we all read each others minds.
You don’t have to fill all available space when designing a site. Just because you have all of that space does not mean that you have to use it. However, by leaving some space between your site’s content, you can provide your visitors with an experience that’s more comfortable. In many ways, empty space provides value to a website.
You must practice what you learn in order to completely understand how to use the site design concepts. You want to do this because you want to make sure all of the knowledge that you’re learning is easy for you to apply. The last thing you want to do is think you’ve learned something but didn’t properly digest it.
Website Development
Start out with building small websites so that you can determine what areas you worked on that were good, and what areas you worked on that were not so good. Your first site should consist of only a page or two, with just basic text and graphics. Once you have that, you can slowly add things.
Start investing in books and resources that help you learn to be successful with your website development. Buy books that are appropriate to your skill level. You do want to increase your skill level, but since website development skills build on each other, missing things can be problematic.
Try to begin your site with minimal content. This helps build a niche and gets them focused on whatever message you are delivering instead of spending wasted time jumping from page to page looking for what interests them. Many newbies place too much information on their home page.
Don’t force visitors to do things. Do not attempt to force them to do an offer or a survey before continuing on with your site. If you do this, you may turn them off from visiting your page.
Use headlines throughout your website. Use large, bold text to attract site visitors’ attention. It has to explain what the page is about so your visitor can quickly decide to stick around or not.
Avoid using captchas beyond the initial registration procedures. Captchas make viewers feel that they must jump through a hoop just to see a simple webpage. Unless your visitor is already devoted to your site, he or she will likely leave your page and go somewhere else.
Allow visitors to search your site from every page. This will maximize usability by making it easier for visitors to navigate. The time and effort required to set up a site search capability are practically negligible, especially when weighed against the very significant benefits.
If you want to host videos, read the rules of your host to make sure you can. Some hosts do not permit videos to be hosted on their servers. The files (FLV) take up a great deal of space on servers, so do not waste your time and efforts including them on your site; learn the rules beforehand.
Try not to steer consumers on your website into different places other than what they are presently interested in. Do not make a visitor complete a survey in order to receive more information. Also, avoid using popup offers. If you utilize these techniques, your readership will decline.
Learn as you go, adding new skills and techniques for website design. Once you have gained an understanding of a specific part of the website development process, you should proceed to learn the next component. While this will take time, it will be worth it in the end when you know enough to create site after site.
It’s important to work on more than a single platform if you will be making more than one website. PHP, MySQL, and Java will all come in handy in the future if you get into web design. Whether it’s working on your own site or helping someone you know get a site off the ground, keep developing yourself into a multifaceted web designer.
Use the copy and paste features of your computer when you are making multiple pages as part of a sub category on your site. When you can re-use pre-existing code with only a few minor tweaks in each different page, generating all-new HTML code over and over is a waste of time. The index page can be worked off of ad infinitum.
In order to become a renowned web designer, you first need to become a great artist. Do not be afraid to run with an inspiration when it strikes. If you have a good idea for your site while you’re eating out, jot it down on a napkin. 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.
Placing new items high and far to the left will draw attention to them. People read from the left side to the right. This means things that you do not want your visitors to miss should be placed on left and high enough that they will notice before moving on.
If you have a logo on your site, make sure it links to your home page. Over time, most people have started to expect to find a clickable logo that takes them to your main web page. Imagine your reader’s frustration as they click away with nothing happening! They might think it’s broken, and that your site isn’t as good as they thought. Having a logo that is clickable makes your website much more easy to navigate.
When you design your website, make sure the site and all of its content is visible to everyone. It would helpful to get someone from another country to look at the site. Some of your content may not display the same way in different countries, so you might want to check this out.
Become an expert at producing cascading style sheets. HTML is okay, but most of the design work happens in CSS. The style sheets are actually great formatting reference guides so that your website looks great over multiple pages. This can make changing your site simple, too. You can change the basic elements of every page of your site with just a few lines of code.
Search Box
Pay attention to your title and make it very descriptive. Run a search for “untitled document” just to see what comes up. You will find that this is often a mistake that others make. You must make naming your site a priority. Search engines use site names to determine what sites are about.
Remember to put your search box on your web pages near the top. Also ensure that it will hold at least twenty-seven characters. Make sure the button that engages the search says “search” and not “submit” or “go”. These things will make sure that the search box is easily seen, easily used, and will help site visitors find what they are looking for.
Each web page that is designed should be validated. If you use an WYSIWYG editor, your code is not clean. You’ll need to go ahead and have your code validated by a service if you’re going to use these applications. There are many free validation services available; one such service is W3C.
Websites are incredible useful and are used for blogging, business and entertainment. However, you need to know how to create a website before you can specialize it. When you use what you have read here, you can easily design any site, to do anything you want.
Make sure that you include tools that people are able to share. It’s good for people to be able to share with their friends and family what it is they like about your site. Plus, giving visitors the tools to share with others on social media helps you get your website out to new people.