If you haven’t learned the basics, web design might seem like it requires years of specialized training to master. As you become educated about it, however, you will see that it is not as hard as you thought. When you take advantage of the advice that has been made available to you here, an easy to navigate, nice to look at website, can be yours.
HTML5 video is set to become the next standard for displaying videos on the web and naturally, you should offer both a way in which users can stream your content through an HTML5 format as well as another format such as flash for those who have an older browser version.
Make sure all of your webpages actually have titles, and make sure they are descriptive. A surprising number of webpages out there are called “untitled document” or “new document”. This not only denies visitors a useful piece of information to remember your site, but also absolutely destroys your SEO, since search engines weight page titles heavily when ranking sites.
White space is an important part of web design, so don’t be afraid to use it. Cluttering up your web pages with too many images or too much text, or using a distracting background, will only irritate your visitors. White space can make the important elements of your page more visible.
Make your front page very simple. Those who are shopping the web will make snap decisions about a site based off its front page. Be descriptive, but try to do so in just a few words.
Be sure your website works both with and without the “www” prefix. Some people will type this in before they head to your site as a force of habit, and some may not. You should make sure that customers will be directed to your site either way, or you may have some confused people on your hands.
If you are not feeling confident in any area at all when you’re designing a website then go ahead and ask for help from someone. You can either find help from a friend or from strangers on places like forums on the web. Just be sure you don’t tackle anything without knowing what you’re doing first.
Your site should be optimized to handle older editions of Internet Explorer, such as IE7 and IE8. Most people do not like Internet Explorer, but others still use it. They don’t render many elements in compliance with web standards, so workarounds are required. It is important that you are familiar with “box model bug” which has harmed IE for awhile now.
Try having a clear and consistent layout in the thrive-themes of your sites. Clean layouts that make use of a lot of white space tend to enhance the site’s readability and overall look. The layout must be focused on the content. Try using fonts that are on every computer in order to avoid having your site appear incorrectly.
Use fonts that are both easy to read, and professional. You can make a pretty good judgment of a website’s professionalism simply by looking at its font selections. Don’t use fancy or non-standard fonts. Some people may not have these fonts installed on their computers. If one of your visitors does not have your chosen font on their own computer, another font is substituted. Doing this can make it look even worse.
When tinkering with your HTML, you always need to save a copy. You can save a copy of your code in a Notepad doc; just save it as .html and it will save as an actual webpage. This way, you can tinker around with things and know that there’s a backup should something go wrong. Failure to save pages may result in having to start from scratch.
When designing a website, you want to keep the privacy of your customer’s information in mind. Set up proper encryption for submitting data, and never store customer passwords and such in a text document. Make sure you set up your website properly so that your customers know that visiting and interacting with your site is safe.
It’s not necessary to do all of the design work yourself. Great web design incorporates many different skills, including graphic design, programming, SEO, and the creation of memorable content. You shouldn’t be ashamed to find help when it’s needed. Hire professionals who specialize in the areas that you are least familiar with if you need to.
When you learn a new site design tactic, you should double-check how accurate it is before you implement it on your site. A faulty tactic may mess up your code and your entire site, so it’s important that you ensure it’s a working tactic before you apply it to your website.
When you design online, you need to create a site with content that everyone can access. It is extremely helpful to have a person from a foreign country check the site for you. Because some content may fail to display properly in foreign countries, it is best to check on this.
Any advertisements that you put up should be minimal in size. Too many ads can make visitors uncomfortable, which is exactly how you don’t want them to feel. Add content that isn’t going to clutter the rest of the content on your site and people will see your webpage in a more professional manner which can encourage them to come back.
Many of the best domain names are currently taken, but you may find it beneficial to explore auction sites like Sedo to see what may be available. There you can discover great domain names that others are no longer using and buy them.
It should be clear that web design isn’t as hard as it seems, once you know a bit about it. As you become more familiar with how it all works, you will find that it is easy to create an online presence that is a valuable asset to your company. Start with applying the advice you read and you should be able to design a good first website.