Tired of working a 9-5 job for peanuts? If so, then web design might be a good alternative to that. When you know how to design websites, you can create them for yourself or for others. You can work on websites whenever you want, allowing you the freedom to work at any time.
If you want to have a successful website, you need to design it in a way that works for all browsers. It is crucial you test out your site that and see that all pages show up properly in each browser. A site that works on Internet Explorer might not display right in Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari. Therefore, you should check how all the pages of your website display in all the major browsers on the market, before turning your site live.
Don’t overdo it with graphics. Graphics are important, but too many can yuck things up. Don’t use graphics just to decorate; use them to improve the site. Your site may be easier to use with just the right amount of graphics.
Make sure that your clients can cancel an action when they need to. This could be anything from filling out forms to registering for email newsletters. When you do not allow visitors to cancel something they do not wish to complete, you are forcing them into something, which can prove detrimental to fostering return visits and/or purchases.
Avoid pop-ups. Viewers hate pop-ups; they are annoying and unprofessional. Many people will close a site immediately if it uses pop-ups, even if it’s a site run by a well-known brand or company. Your customers will be much happier if you give these types of advertisement a wide swerve. If you are required by your hosting service to have pop-up ads, you may want to consider obtaining a new web host.
Keep your topics separated. Each different topic should have a separate page on your website. This will reduce visitor confusion and facilitate readability by the search engines.
Good meta tags are a quick way to ensure your website makes it to a good rank on search engines. Good meta tags help search engines understand and categorize your website’s content properly. If you use irrelevant meta tags, instead of tags that describe your website’s content appropriately, search engines will classify your site incorrectly and you won’t get a lot of traffic.
Use basic fonts which every user will be able to see. Fonts say a lot about the professionalism of a site and the business it represents. Don’t use handwriting or comic fonts as most people won’t have them installed. If a site visitor has not installed a certain font on his or her computer, it may display as a default font. This can interfere with the design of your website.
A visitor counter does not add to the appearance of your website. It is not something visitors really want to see. Get rid of that unsightly counter and instead use alternative tools to help you gauge traffic.
Even though development platforms provide you with code, some are not nearly as trustworthy as classic text editors. Platforms allow you to design the way your site looks, and you can then simply paste the code that it generates for you. However, this can lead to errors, so you may prefer coding your site by hand with a text editor.
There are newsletters that you can sign up for, which will keep you informed about web designing. These are good to get you back on track if you lose sight of your goals, and motivate you to get on the right path. These are great for both pros and beginners.
Familiarize yourself with HTML5. If you do not know that much about it, it is important that you start to familiarize yourself right away.
In order to get your first webpage up, you need to educate yourself on how to do this properly. This will help you quickly create great sites. Your website will be subpar without this knowledge.
It is important to do your research. Research the target audience and your niche. Think about different ways to design the site and maximize your efforts. Doing so will make your web design efforts pay off handsomely.
Discuss things with your friends to gather if you missed anything while learning about Photoshop, HTML, or Dreamweaver. They can be a great resource for those times when you get stuck on your design and need a little help remembering how to do something for your site.
If you have a professional to speak with, do so. Web design veterans can offer valuable insight into tips, tricks, traps to avoid, hurdles to jump and a variety of other information, that can boost your initial efforts. Gathering as much knowledge as you can will ensure that you can become an expert yourself some day.
Include some form of “site searching” from your home page, and all sub-pages if possible. You make your site much easier to use and more accessible all in one shot with this search offering. Site searches are easy to make, and the benefits are worth the effort.
Don’t force visitors on a path since that can keep them from their workflow. You don’t want to suddently have a survey appear before them or promotions that they have to click on in order to go further. When you take away the visitor’s choices by your own demands, you will lose their loyalty and decrease your credibility.
White space, or space that is unused and empty, is truthfully beneficial to a website, so don’t think your site has to be chock full of pictures, graphics and content. Having some free space within your site improves its readability. This will cause your visitors to more easily read and retain the knowledge provided to them.
With everything you’ve learned here, you should now know more about web design. Take this knowledge and apply it to your own website. You are sure to be pleased with the results.