The design of your website is vitally important to its success. Pay attention to how easy it is to use, how it looks, and what type of content it holds. If you do it well, more and more people will visit and return to your site. For assistance in making sure that the design you choose is both beautiful and effective, consider the helpful tips below.
Have a visible tagline. Taglines are catchy mottos that explain your business. Using a tagline that’s clear can really help because if someone goes to your site, it takes about eight seconds to get their attention so they’ll be interested in your page.
Successful websites work well with any browser, so you’ll need to do some testing of your paging using various browsers. While a certain element may look wonderful in Firefox, it may appear incorrectly on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Safari. Before you set your site to go live, look at how every page shows up in all the major browsers.
Color combinations are key in branding your website. Your text should remain the main focus of attention and should be easy to read. Dark text on a light background is the easiest for your visitor to read. If you don’t know whether your color theme functions well, ask a friend or colleague to provide feedback.
Make it easy for visitors to back out of a process if they change their minds. For example, allow users to cancel registration for newsletters or easily back out of a search. If you do not give visitors the option to get out of an action they do not want to continue with, you are pressuring them into something. This makes them less likely to come back or buy from you in the future.
With large websites, it’s always best to add in good search capabilities. This is commonly located in the topmost-right corner of the screen as an empty bar, which users can insert a search term or phrase. FreeFind and Google both offer these search functions to use on your site.
It is very important that you understand the needs of your web visitors. As a web designer, it is important that you make this the focus of your design. This can include user experience, accessibility, usability, and user interaction. These are primary considerations you must factor in. Visit your site to see how easy it is to navigate.
Newsletters can generate repeat visits. When you allow people to receive notifications about special events, discounts or updates, they are more likely to visit your site multiple times. You can incorporate a form in the sidebar of the site and track users that sign up. You can avoid some reputation-damaging trouble by making sure that your newsletter only goes out to visitors who have explicitly requested it.
Optimize your website to ensure fast load times. Visitors won’t wait around forever for pages to load. Try reducing how many graphics you use, as well as how much Flash and JavaScript is on your site, optimize your HTML code, make use of server caches and minimize your use of JS and CSS code.
Always avoid placing pop-up advertisements on your site. Certainly it is important to include PPC ads on your site to earn some money, but pop-up ads that get in the way of what your visitors want to see is counterproductive. This usually results in visitors not returning to your site. Keeping your site free of excessive ads will only create a better experience for the visitor.
One great website creating program is Adobe Dreamweaver. It is ideal for beginner builders and easy to learn. You can do a lot of editing and testing on your local computer before uploading them to be live on your site.
Post pictures on your site. Pictures help your site seem more approachable and user friendly. People will spend more time on your site looking around when they see pictures they want to click on.
Website Design
Photoshop is a very effective and helpful tool when it comes to website design. However, many overlook another program called Dreamweaver that is extremely useful for website design also. Do yourself a favor, and familiarize with Dreamweaver and the benefits it can provide.
Allow “site searching” on all of your pages. This increases the site’s usability five-fold, and makes it easier to get to anyplace on the site from any other place on the site. This feature can be included with ease, and is a worthy addition to any site.
If you have a number of website ideas in mind, it is wise to purchase a domain name right away. Come up with a creative name, but once you do so it is vital that you reserve it as quickly as possible. Other people may be thinking about the same thing you are thinking. Great minds often think alike.
When making multiple pages for different subcategories on your site, the copy/paste function can be your favorite thing about your PC! Instead of writing your HTML from scratch every time, use the shared section of code as a template and make the necessary changes, then use “save as” to save the file under a new name. Having this master copy to work from will speed up the process of designing each new page!
With these tips, you can design a website that does what you want it to – by fostering a good relationship with your site visitors by providing a site that is easy to look at and easy to use. The ability to do this will help your online success, which can improve your financial success as well.