Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Make Your Web Design More Effective With This Advice

By Yalda Colby


Instead of outsourcing your web design duties to some company out there, you can instead learn the exact same skills and become the person that other people seek to help them build websites. It really is one of the easiest web skills to learn, even though it seems like one of the most complicated on its face. F

It is imperative that all of your webpages have titles. Forgetting to include titles while designing your website can have disastrous consequences. The biggest reason is that it makes your website look unprofessional when there is no title, both on the webpage itself, and also on a search results page. Search engines also place heavy emphasis on titles when determining the content of your website. Remember to utilize keywords, and make your titles descriptive.

It may seem pretty simple, but the logo that you put on your website is going to make a big difference in the overall performance of your site. You must be sure that it expresses what you do, and what sets you apart from your competitors. If you cannot come up with a good logo on your own, seek help from a professional.

While bright and bold may be your style, you have to remember that designing a site is just as much for your visitors as it is for you, so take it easy on those bright, bold color options. Having a bright site might just scare people away. The last thing you want is a blinding shade of neon green making it hard to see your content.

When you are designing your site, be aware of how many links you are using. The more links you have on your site, the more links you are going to have to monitor for "link rot". You do not want to have a bunch of dead links on your site because you included too many to monitor when you were developing the site.

Give your visitors the ability to search your site so that they can more easily find what they are looking for. If someone cannot find what they are looking for right away, their next thought will be to look for a search field. Put this somewhere obvious and include a search button.

Separate your topics. If you have several topics of discussion on your site, put them on different pages. This helps alleviate any confusion that your customers may experience, as well as giving search engines a broader and more clear view of your site, potentially bumping you up higher in their rankings.

Web designers who are trying to choose a web hosting service should be wary of any service that claims you have unlimited bandwidth. There is not such thing as unlimited bandwidth and they could just be trying to scam you into signing with them. Make sure you read all the fine print!

Try using easy, maintainable and clear navigation. The placement of your navigation links on a website plays an important part in determining how long a visitor will remain on your site. The navigational structure must be neat, consistent, and easy to access for your users to have a better experience.

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.

Create webpages that are "scannable". Reading online is different than reading a newspaper or a book. By default, site visitors scan webpages, looking for anything that stands out. Make sure your pages have lists, bolded words, titles, and short blocks of text. That way, your site will "feel better" to site visitors, enticing them to stay on your site.




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