In today’s poor economy, many folks are trying to start businesses on the Internet. If you want an online business that thrives, you need to have great website design. Check out these excellent tips about web page design so that your business can succeed.
When doing web design, use the appropriate graphics. Keep in mind that bitmaps don’t usually work well, while PNGs do. Try using PNGs for images that are not photos or text buttons or if an image has over 256 colors. Use GIFs for something with less than 256 colors. For photos, JPEG images work well.
Use fixed-position navigation so your users can navigate your site with ease. This keeps the site menus in place as visitors scroll through your site. This is convenient for visitors and helps frequent visitors quickly find what they need.
Make sure you have a tagline that shows up well on your website. This will let people know what your business represents. This will give the visitor a quick first impression of what you’re about.
When you design a site, pull it up in various browsers. What you see on your side may not always be what the others see on theirs. Research every popular browser that people use, and adjust your design accordingly. Checking your website with different operating systems and browsers will help ensure that it works for everyone.
Let visitors cancel actions if they want to. An action can involve filling out forms, registering for email notifications or newsletters, or browsing the site for various topics or archives. If your visitors can’t easily change their mind and back out of registering for a site feature, they may feel forced to complete a transaction. This isn’t good for your web traffic or your reputation.
Make sure your website is easily scanned. Studies have shown that internet users scan pages to find interesting articles. Divide your content into sections that readers can readily scan and your visitors will come back for more. Additionally, keep your most important info at the top of the page. This ensures your site is user friendly.
Maintain normal-sized pages. Not all people using the Internet have a fast connection, and loading times can make visitors lose interest. Users will be quick to leave a website that has pages that take too long to load.
It does not matter how you have designed your website; you have to make sure that every file has a small file size. The sizes of the files affect the loading time of your site. You want your website to load as quickly as possible. You should remember also that some visitors may not use an Internet connection that is high speed. Test your site to make sure that it loads up quickly, even when accessed on a dial up connection.
Whatever file types you use for the graphics on your site go hand-in-hand with file size. This plays a major role in how fast your site loads. Your graphics should be GIFs and JPEGs. Web graphics look better when they are made from PNG and BMP files, but they take up much more disk space. When you change your images to smaller files, your website visitors will find your website easier to navigate.
Go ahead and invest into some books, that can assist you with learning how to become a successful web designer. Start out simple by purchasing books that are in line with your level of expertise, then gradually upgrade.
Make sure you have the right background. Remove obstacles to easy text reading by avoiding things like GIF backgrounds that move. In order to preserve your website’s focus, and make it easy for your visitors to comprehend, you should choose a background image that harmonizes well with your site instead of clashing with it.
Keep the curiosity of your visitor in mind. Don’t disrupt the natural flow of his or her exploration of your site. For instance, do not force them to respond to surveys or offers before they can proceed to the content in which they are interested. Forcing your visitors to do things they don’t have time for will only annoy them and drive them away.
Make the content on your pages easy to read. There are going to be people with all different levels of education viewing your site. When expanding your audience, you want to develop content they understand.
Remember to position important information on your site high on the page and oriented to the far left. 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.
Design your page so that previously entered information is saved and automatically used to fill in informational boxes. An example of this is if someone fills out a form to register, and then has to fill out other forms for other things. If the person’s info transfers from one form to the next, it will be much more convenient and less time consuming for the user. This “sticky” information can make the process easier and smoother for visitors and they’ll appreciate it.
A great way to determine your website appeal is to check your site’s statistics every time you update the site. It’ll help you learn who’s visiting your site, and how they tend to surf. This will help you know where you need to update and highlight to keep your visitors engaged.
Link your logo to your home web page. It is common these days for sites to have a logo or image that visitors can click on to return to the home page. It can prove frustrating to your users if they click on a static logo, because then they have to search to find a ‘home’ link. Incorporating a clickable logo greatly increases your site’s usability.
Creating a favicon is basic, good web page design practice. This tiny little graphic will make your site much more recognizable should your visitor bookmark your site. When a visitor browses his bookmarks, a distinctive favicon will stand out. Create a favicon that works well with the theme and logo of your site.
Regardless of your target audience or what type of site you have, try to keep your loading time under ten seconds. Sites that are well-made and efficient will open in a browser in moments. Many users crave instant gratification, so you should give it to them.
Be certain that your website title is descriptive. Do a quick search for the keyword ‘untitled document’ to see how many webmasters neglect to name their site properly. See how many inexperienced web designers there are! It is essential that you name your site. This will play a large factor in how you rank on search engines.
Web page design can be very simple and not confusing. Even though some things can be tricky to design, the tips read here are sure to help make it much easier for you to learn. Whatever your motivation for making a site, these tips can help.