Website development is a great way to make money. Website design can either be used to create sites for yourself or for someone else. The time you dedicate to working on these sites can be all on your own time, which is great if you want to be free while you make money.
When you are working on your web design, use the proper graphics needed for the task. Remember, bitmap images can get quite large and often don’t work very well while PNG images work fine. For simple text buttons or graphics that aren’t photographs, use PNG for files that are 256 colors or larger. Use a GIF file for anything less than 256. JPEG images are good for pictures.
Functional websites work out for all visitors, regardless of their browser, so it’s essential that your website is tested across all the major platforms. Even though your website may display perfectly on Internet Explorer, this doesn’t mean that it will look the same on Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Prior to going live with your website, see how your pages look on every popular browser.
Add a prominent tagline to your website. This expresses exactly what your business offers. It’s important to use a tagline that is clear since you have about eight seconds when someone goes to your page to get them interested in exploring your entire website.
Do not work with pop-ups. Many consumers are bothered when they visit a site and are suddenly bombarded by pop-ups. Your customers will agree that if they visit a site, and are overwhelmed with pop-ups, they’re likely not to return. You can prevent visitor frustration, and improve your reputation, by avoiding pop-up advertisements entirely. Some website hosting services require you to use pop-up ads; you should view such policies as strong arguments against using such a service.
Don’t use frames. Back then, they were the height of technology, but technology has moved on. Frame designs are harder to bookmark, and they make scrolling a chore. You can use much simpler methods to allow your users a way to navigate your content.
Internet Explorer
Make sure your visitors can search for content on your website. If visitors to your site need something specific, they look for a search box first. If your site is not equipped with one, visitors may go to an alternate site. Place it near the page’s top right corner since this is one of the first places people usually look for them.
Make sure you optimize your website for older Internet Explorer versions like IE7 and IE8. Everyone loves to hate Internet Explorer, but the sad fact is that a large minority of internet users still use these old versions of IE. Workarounds are needed for many elements to be visible in IE. Make sure you look at the very vexing “box model bug” that IE experienced.
Regardless of your client or website purpose, you need to strive for loading times of less than ten seconds. Properly designed sites ought to pop up in browsers almost immediately. Most online users want satisfaction, immediately.
To design a more attractive site, include useful meta tags per each page. High-quality meta tags will let the search engines know what your website is about. If you use poorly constructed meta tags that don’t reflect your content accurately, you won’t get much traffic.
Make sure that you include efficient search capabilities when you’re designing a large website. It is best to put a search box in the top right corner right of your homepage. Make sure that anyone can search for any item that would be included in your site. FreeFind and Google both offer search plugins that can easily be added to your website.
Any links you place on your site should have text content. Your visitors should know exactly what they’re heading for when they click on a link. If you have links that don’t specify where it takes you, then someone could mistakenly click it by using a keyboard shortcut.
You can build yourself a fine website using only free software. There is a pervasive myth that expensive programs do the job of web design better than the alternatives, but there is plenty of free software that does a great job. A simple search is easy to do, and it produces a way for you to determine which free software and tools are best suited to your needs.
Make sure you have enough details on your company page to allow your visitors to know more about who you are and what you can offer them. There are a lot of websites that do not utilize compelling or original content for their “About Us” webpages. Try spicing things up! Share some information about yourself, your inspiration and your website design business.
Never use an overabundance of conflicting fonts on your website. You need to also be mindful of how some fonts appear on monitors, since smaller serif fonts are difficult to read. Many websites use Verdana, which can be simple to read in various sizes and colors.
Always opt for fonts that area crisp and easy to read. The quality of a professional website is measured by it’s fonts. Avoid using fonts like Comic Sans and various fancy fonts that might not be on many computers. Your style should specify a default font in case a user doesn’t have your preferred font. When the font defaults it can tend to make your webpage look much worse than it really is.
When designing your site, use ALT tags when adding images. Tags such as these are key because for those who browse without graphics or who are vision problems, the tags provide descriptions of the images. When links are used for images, having an ALT tag lets you describe the link’s behavior. The last thing is that ALT tags attract search engine crawlers, so you can get a better ranking by using them.
When you are facing a block in your design process, you have the Internet at your fingertips for help. Many websites can help you get the motivation you need. Find one you like, figure out why it’s appealing, and decide what you can use and improve in your own. Just remember that borrowing others’ ideas isn’t enough to make your own page successful. Take those ideas and improve them.
Build websites with fonts that are easy-to-read, professional-looking, and widely available. You can make a pretty good judgment of a website’s professionalism simply by looking at its font selections. Some fonts, such as comic sans, are ones that you want to stay away from. If your website calls for a font that your visitors do not have, a default font will be substituted. This can make your website look a lot worse.
Hosting your site yourself is not really a great idea, no matter what amount of money you’ve decided to invest in it. You need to design your site on your own, but let another person host your site because this can free up your time and let you put your focus on some other areas besides the security and safety of your site.
Make sure the entire website is entirely read over and over again to insure it looks professional and well-designed. You want visitors to be able to navigate easily. With errors, you will risk looking unprofessional.
Signing up for an online newsletter about website creation is a great way to receive a periodic reminder to stay on top of new trends and revive your desire to learn as much as possible. Newsletters are helpful to both beginners and experienced designers.
Limit the amount of content you start out with on a given page to small amounts when you first start out. Over time, the amount of content will accumulate alongside your network traffic, which makes things less confusing for everyone.
You want to ensure all content is proofread and that it doesn’t look rushed. Your goal is for people to be able to read it easily and quickly. If your site is rife with errors, it makes you look like a rank amateur. Visitors will dismiss you immediately.
Allow “site searching” on all of your pages. This ensures that all parts of your carefully designed site are always accessible to the people that need them. Site searches are fairly easy to implement, and the reward will far outweigh any time or effort spent.
Choose some reference books on design principles in general, and web page design in particular. Start out simple by purchasing books that are in line with your level of expertise, then gradually upgrade.
Never be forceful in the direction a viewer wants to take. Don’t force your user to attend to pop-ups, surveys and other intrusive nonsense. If you utilize these techniques, your readership will decline.
Have another person constantly test your website functionality through the entire design process. When adding new features, have a few people test it to make sure it functions like you want it to. You might not think much of a video that loads slow, but another set of eyes can give a differing perspective. Always seek feedback from outside sources.
It’s not necessary to do all of the design work yourself. Content creation, web programming, user interface design, graphic design, and search engine optimization are just a few of the specialized sub-skills that can contribute to great web design. You shouldn’t be ashamed to find help when it’s needed. There are plenty of freelance web designers and web design firms who can handle any aspect of the web design process.
If you are designing websites, you truly are an artist. Act like one. By that, we mean you should be open to inspiration all the time. When a great idea pops into your head during a meal out, scribble your thoughts 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.
If you want to host any type of video on your website, make sure to first check with the web host to be positive that this is something that is allowed. Many hosts don’t allow video at all, while others will restrict the amount of bandwidth you can use before you pay a fee. All of the FLV files occupy a huge amount of server space, so there is no point setting up a website to accept them if your web host can’t make the space.
If there is something important you need to post, it should be high on the page and close to the left side. Left-to-right is a natural orientation because it is how we read. Placing items up high and far to the left will cause them to be seen first.
Check your site’s stats with every update you make. Not only can you see who is on your site, but you can also see which pages are getting the most attention. These stats can help you determine what to work on so visitors will come back.
Keep up with your website’s statistics when you do updates in order to know how appealing the page is. This is important because you should stay abreast of which pages your visitors visit the most and where your customers are located. This helps you learn how to create content they like.
Have a logo? If so, put on the top of every page of your site. This is the best way to create a link for all the pages of your site and make it more coherent. This also helps you create good brand recognition. Create a logo that will represent your company well.
This article has given you an idea of what goes into designing a website. Practice what you have learned, and you can become proficient with very little time invested.
Using free stock images can help you save a bit of money when creating your website. A simple search will help you locate these images and they are usually high-quality. The money you save on images can be put toward other areas of your business.