Building a site from the ground up is intriguing and intimidating. You might not be sure how to plan your site or who to ask to help you. You may not even know how much it costs to design and operate a website. Read on to learn some principles of basic web design planning so that you can do things the right way from the beginning.
Do not go overboard with graphics. While they help to keep a visitor’s interest, they can also make a site look cluttered and push visitors away. Graphics are not for decoration or ornamentation. Instead, they are to help you improve the overall appeal and usability of your site. Having the appropriate number of graphics that do not create clutter improves the usability of your website, too.
Allow your users the ability to cancel something if they are not happy with what they typed in. An action may refer to signing up for e-mail notifications, newsletter subscriptions or filling out web forms. If you do not give site users the opportunity to cancel an action, they are not likely to return to your site. Over time, this could negatively impact your sales and site traffic.
Make your visitor’s life a little easier by preserving the content they enter into forms. For instance, if someone fills out a form using personal information, he or she should have to enter that same information in again when he or she goes to fill out an additional form. Keeping information “sticky” like this will make it simple to sign up for things on your site, and visitors will appreciate that you have saved them time.
Web Browsers
Minimize the use of JavaScript. Some of your website visitors may not have JavaScript, and others will not want to update it on a regular basis. Every web browsers is different and they are constantly updating. Not all visitors have the most current version of their browser. Also, many people do not enable JavaScript in web browsers. If they aren’t using either or these options, then they will not be able to view your site.
To create a better-optimized site, avoid using frames. While they improve your site’s looks, any information contained in a frame is not indexed by search engines. You will lose viewers if they can’t find your site because a search engine fails to find what they searched for on your page. When that happens, not many people will see your site.
Your navigation methods should be clear and easy to maintain. Placing your navigation links in easy to find locations will help you keep visitors on your website. The navigational structure must be neat, consistent, and easy to access for your users to have a better experience.
Now that you’ve read the advice contained herein, you should be ready to tackle the first steps of creating your site. Develop a budget, get some good advice, and start drawing up your plans. You can create sites that fill your needs without a lot of money by starting now!
