Designing you own website can be an exciting prospect and an overwhelming one! Use this article to help you get a good background, both on what all it entails and how to best implement it.
Keep the size of your web pages small. A lot of modern web pages are full of unnecessary elements, including huge images, Flash advertising, and lots of AJAX. Many people, especially those in rural areas and other countries with less-developed internet infrastructure, don't have high-speed Internet and will have to wait forever for a large page to load.
Always mark files that must be opened in an external program with an icon. Many sites host PDF files, and less commonly, DOC files, that must be opened in Foxit Reader and Microsoft Word/OpenOffice, respectively. These files should be marked with an icon representing the file type, and a link to download the appropriate viewer if the user does not have it.
Check for broken links before publishing your web page. Clicking on links that bring you to errors is quite annoying. Use a program or check links manually to be sure you have no broken links on your site.
Use images wisely. Bitmap images do not tend to fare well for internet use, and some GIFs do not work well with lots of color. Image size is important as well, as larger images may make your viewers have to wait for them to download. Choose smaller images, and use them sparingly to make your site more manageable.
If you believe your site may be accessed via mobile devices, you will want to keep your designs simple. The use of flash, excessive images, and complicated menus will not translate well to a mobile platform. Keep your page clean and simple, or create a specific mobile site for your users.
Be sure you're using ALT tags for the images while you design a website. ALT tags are used to provide a description of the images on your site, which will help any visually impaired visitors. When links are used for images, having an ALT tag lets you describe the link's behavior. Finally, search engine crawlers like ALT tags as they are useful. So, your search rank might improve as a result.
To help you create a website, you should learn HTML. Knowing HTML helps you understand how a website functions. When you understand how a website works, you can incorporate your own read more HTML code into your site. This helps you to easily correct changes without having to rely on outside programs to build your site. In other words, you have more control over your site's content.
Be sure load times for your site are good. Most visitors will leave if it takes a long time to load your website. Minimize the amount of Flash, scripts and graphics on your site. Optimize the site with HTML, SSI files, caching options and minimize CSS and JS coding.
Organize your links and avoid putting too many links in one area of your site. Doing this can confuse visitors and make them leave your site. If you do have many low- to mid-importance links, emulate the "blogrolls" seen in many blogs and tuck them away in a column on the right side of the page.
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.
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.
In order to learn about creating your first site, you need to gain information online. This is the fastest route to getting the job done. Without that correct information, you could end up with a site that has a poor design that people want to avoid.
Never enter into a website development course unless you already understand the basics. The vast majority of people in these courses are already far ahead of you, thus the material being taught is strictly technical. There is no buffer period. You'll go from 0 to 60 instantly and will be left behind if you enter as a complete novice.
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.
Web design can be a fun way to get to your target audience, and promote your company or product. If you do this right, you will be a stronger promotions professional. Begin utilizing the advice in this piece immediately in order to maximize your results.