If you want to design a website as a hobby, for your business or even as your own career, a solid foundation of knowledge will help you get your foot in the door. From learning HTML to knowing search engine optimization techniques, there are many facets to web design.
Read on to find some advice which will cover all of the basics.
The graphics you use are important. Keep in mind that bitmap files are quite large and typically do not work well, but PNGs work okay. For simple images, GIF is fine, though. JPEGs are ideal for photographs.
Make sure your webpages aren't too long. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if your most important content is "below the fold," it may not even be read. If you have a lot of related content that needs to stay together, consider breaking it up into sections and adding links to each section.
Encourage visitors to come back to a website repeatedly, by offering them a newsletter. When you allow people to receive notifications about special events, discounts or updates, they are more likely to visit your site multiple times. Place a signup form on your site in a sidebar, while maintaining a list of everyone who signs up. Just send your newsletter to subscribers.
Use a tracking service, rather than displaying your visitor counter for all to read. Many websites still display their counters, yet they do not serve any real purpose. There are many high quality tracking services available, and some are even free. Use these instead of showing off how many people visit you.
Retain user information so that people don't have to waste valuable time re-typing information into forms. When a visitor fills out a registration form on your website, for instance, your site should hang onto that information, and use it to fill out data fields for the visitor on subsequent interactive pages ahead of time. You streamline the process when you create "sticky" information, and your visitors will appreciate you not wasting their time.
To help you create good web pages and fix mistakes on your own, learn computer languages. Educating yourself on how a website actually works will help you quickly fix any mistakes. Knowing how to deal with problems on your site will save you time and money, as you will not have to rely on outside help to remedy the situation.
Use custom error pages to make your site more informative. For instance, if you want people to report dead links on your site, either put a server-side script on your 404 page or have a form or email address that visitors can use to report the error. You should have custom pages for 403, 404, and 500 errors, at the very least.
Don't include pop-up windows when designing your website. Most people will be turned off by a site that pop's windows up in their face. If customers see these popups and get frustrated, they may not come back to your site.
Every page of your website should have a way to return to the main page, or "home." This ensures that when users navigate deeper into your site, they always have a way to start over if they lose place of what got them to the page they are on currently.
Always use the same type of fonts so that guest to your site don't become agitated by reading different types of fonts. You want people to browse through the site with ease so that they can just concentrate on the material on the site and what the site has to offer.
Forums are going to be your best friend in the next few weeks, this is because there's a lot of information to be gained from various forums where you have the ability to gain endless amounts of knowledge from people all over the world. So check out what websites and forums can help you along your way with web design.
When designing your website, it is a good idea not to stray too far from popular conventions. For example, most users expect that when they click on the website logo at the top of a webpage, they will be taken to the home page of the website. If your website behaves differently, it can confuse the user. In many cases, straying from such conventions can lead to a poor overall user experience.
Site maps are an excellent piece of technology that allow users and search engines to get a better view of your site's functions and layouts without extra work. Include a link to your sitemap from the homepage and leave it as simple as possible. The sitemap doesn't need fancy graphics or fonts, just layout your website and update it when needed.
Focusing on your target audience is important even for website design. For instance, if you're designing a site in order to sell winter coats, you're not exactly going to have a beach themed background with Joe Strummer tunes playing upon entry. Keep your site closely related to its targeted audience.
To summarize, you knew it would be a good idea to refresh yourself on a few web design tips or to start off by getting a good baseline knowledge on read more the subject. There is quite a bit of information available and ideally you were able to find this article both interesting and useful for your website.