Many people love to design websites, but they aren't quite sure how to organize their pages. Like anything in life, organization is key and the same goes for your website. If the site is not organized then you will have frustrated visitors who cannot find anything. Continue on to the article below for some great tips on how to best design an organized website.
You want to have a site that is easy to navigate, if you want to attract visitors. You should have links that are easy to find, as well as displayed well. Menus will make it a lot easier to navigate around your site. Have links to the main pages available on every page of your site so visitors can always find their way around.
It's not the 90's anymore, so stay away from using frames. Frames were popular once, but they have entirely too many flaws. Readers have difficulty bookmarking and scrolling websites with frames. You will learn, thanks to advancements in web design, that allowing your visitors to cruise through an easy flowing site is a simple as 1, 2, 3 and visually more attractive.
Always mark files that must be opened in an external program with an icon. Many sites host PDF files, and less commonly, DOC files, that must be opened in Foxit Reader and Microsoft Word/OpenOffice, respectively. These files should be marked with an icon representing the file type, and a link to download the appropriate viewer if the user does not have it.
Don't use frames if you want to optimize your website. This information will not be visible on the search engines. If pertinent info is not readable by search engines, your rankings will be negatively affected. If that happens, you will not get as many visitors.
New web designers who are aiming to create an appealing website, should utilize Photoshop. This software will ensure that you have all the effects and tools you need to create graphics which look like they were completed by a pro. If you don't have an easy-to-use tool like Photoshop, it will drastically increase the time and effort required to build a professional-looking website.
Organize your links and avoid putting too many links in one area of your site. Doing this can confuse visitors and make them leave your site. If you do have many low- to mid-importance links, emulate the "blogrolls" seen in many blogs and tuck them away in a column on the right side of the page.
Choose your web host carefully. Some hosts require you to link to them, while others may force you to install their pop-ups. You should also test their performance using one of the many tools available for free online, as you do not want to host with someone who is consistently slow or crashing.
Avoid cramming page elements together. Each section of your page should be naturally separated from each other, as this makes the purpose of each section more clear. The easiest way to separate sections is by using DIVs, but there are other ways, including absolute positioning (not recommended), the CSS margin command, and floats.
As you design a site, look to your target audience. Ask them what is important in the sites they like. This will help with designing your site and features too. Getting input about your readers' interests is click here essential to a useful site.
The harder you work on your web design, the easier it will be for you to learn new techniques. So, go ahead and start up some simple pages with HTML and C+ to see if you have some of the fundamentals down. It's never too late to start practicing, so start today.
Remember, you don't have to break the bank to design a website. For each costly, popular program or tool available for web design, there are equally useful programs or tools that are much cheaper. For instance, there is no cost open source software that can assist you in many of the sames ways as paid software. You can save a lot of money by using freeware or open source software.
YouTube is a great resource to learn a few things about site design. The best part about checking out YouTube is that you're able to watch the design in action. You're not simply reading about it. Visual aid like this can help you get the hang of site building a lot quicker than reading about it.
Understand how your webpage will be read at a glance, rather than word for word. Most viewers won't spend their time gathering every piece of written content on a page; at least not until after they've scanned it. Words that are larger, bold, or emphasized should be the most important and placed sparingly to get your ideas across.
Avoid every instance of spammy "sell language" that you possibly can. Studies show that users are likely to jump off of a webpage the instant they pick up the "salesman" vibe. This is because it is said to actually trigger a predatory response in human brain function! So next time you want to sell a product, remember that the potential consumer may view you as a predator and run!
Good web design, as stated in the introduction, can be breathtaking to behold when it's really done well. It's not hard to tell a good design from a bad design, but there are some things you can do to make better designs. Putting these tips into practice will lead to effective web design.
Katlyn Slocum Design
104 SE 93rd Avenue, Vancouver, WA 98664
360-784-1465