Technology is important in today’s day and age. A career in web page design is just one example, but you must also understand that competition is stiff. Be a leader, not a follower, when you are web designing.
Try using fixed-position navigation to let your users navigate with ease. This involves locking your site’s navigation panel as visitors scroll down. This isn’t just great for a visitor, you can also help out Internet marketers because it allows visitors to have an easier time doing an action like buy products or sign up to get a newsletter.
Watch your use of color combinations when building your site. If the text fades into the background due to poor contrast, the text will be hard to read. The better choice is using darker fonts against backgrounds that are lighter. If you can’t decide if the colors are right, ask someone you know for feedback.
Do not go overboard with graphics. You want the site to look professional and well-designed instead of cluttered. Don’t use graphics as a decoration for your site; they should be used to make it look professional. Having enough graphics that don’t clutter the site will make your site easier to use, as well.
Search Engines
To help you design a website that is optimized for search engines, do not include frames. The information in the frames won’t show in search engines. If search engines are unable to see some of the key information presented by your site, your ranking is bound to suffer. Your visitors will be few if this happens.
Optimize your website of old versions of the IE browser. The Internet community loves to hate on IE, but in truth, a large portion of Internet traffic still happens through IE. These do not render the web elements to the web standard, so there must be workarounds. Specifically, you should learn about a “box model bug” which troubled Internet Explorer for years.
You want the navigation to be simple and easy. Place all navigation links in areas that flow well and are easily visible so your visitors know where to go and remain on the site much longer. You must build a site that is neat and clean and easy to navigate so that your visitors will enjoy it.
Remember that spending gobs of money is not a necessity for designing an effective website. There are certainly expensive design tools out there, but many companies offer software with similar features at a fraction of the cost. There are plenty of free software options that function in the same way as commercial software. These open source solutions are the key to saving money in your budget.
Keep the levels of literacy in mind when you are writing your content. There are differing levels at which people read and you will not want to approach all visitors as if they have had a college education. In order to grow your audience, you should write content that spans the masses.
Launching your website doesn’t signal the end of the design process. Be ready to stay active with your site. Updating doesn’t need to be daily, but you must find a regular schedule and follow through consistently. Updates will almost definitely be needed if your website hosts articles or videos featuring current events. Updating a site is different than updating your blog. It requires a great deal of time and effort.
If you are a web designer, it is good to be an artist. This means that you should feel inspired by the everyday things in life, and put that inspiration to work. If you have an epiphany while you’re out and about, write it down on any scrap of paper you can find. If something comes up at work, call yourself and leave a message on your phone so you’ll remember it later.
When designing your website, ensure that critical content is high on the page, beginning with the upper left corner. Because people read from the left to the right, placing key information on the top left of the screen makes it more likely that users see this first before going on to the rest of the information on the site.
Each time you make a change to your site, look at your statistics. This is important because you should stay abreast of which pages your visitors visit the most and where your customers are located. Then you will know what materials you should add to get them to come back.
As you browse the web, take notice as to how many sites look exactly alike and simple to build. Rising above the fray is how you will ultimately make your mark on the Internet. Use the tips in this article to help you get started with your website development career.