Tips And Tricks For Mastering Website Design

Are you interested in becoming a fantastic web designer? Are there many goals on your plate, but your lack of knowledge in web page design is keeping you from them? The following article can teach you the things you should know to become a better web designer.

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.

Avoid using so-called "mystery meat navigation". This involves using unlabeled images or other elements for the site's navigation. In many cases, the visitor has to mouse over the buttons to even see what they do. Navigation is best kept simple. Use text links across the top or along the left side of the page.

It may look pretty, but stay away from having too many animations on your site. Having your sales splash page rotate, spin and blink may look cool to you, but it will likely drive potential viewers away. When you add too many flashy splashes like that, it makes your site look amateurish which is not the message you want to convey.

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.

Web design is a subject that you always want to stay informed on. With this in mind, if you have any friends that are also into website development then you will want to keep in contact with them. You can exchange any new information you learn so that you're both on top of your game when it comes to website design.

If you have several pages on your web site, use a navigation bar at the top to help visitors find the information they need right away. Include contact information, so they can speak with you if they'd like. Headings should be clear and visible, and paragraphs should be concise as well as easy to read.

Minimize the amount of clicking or scrolling visitors must do to access information. The more a user has to click or scroll around to find the information they seek, the more likely they are to give up looking for it. Aim for having at least 400 words on every page of your site by combining pages that have content that falls below this number of words.

Make sure your website uses a consistent font throughout. Some websites change fonts willy-nilly without any design reason to do so. This makes the content difficult to process for visitors. Most websites, especially business websites, will do just fine sticking to basic fonts like Arial, Veranda, or even Times New Roman.

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.

Your website's load times are effected by which file types you use for images. Your graphics should normally be GIFs or JPEGs. Although PNG and MBP files might be the better options for web graphics, they take up way too much disk space. You can convert the larger graphics into a more manageable size to help your viewers have a better user experience.

Test early and often. You need to use your website as a reader would in usability tests early in the design process. Make sure to keep improving and testing it as your website continues to grow.

Try to make sure that any music or pictures that you're linking to is hosted on your own web server. Do not hotlink to any other website images. This can be construed as bandwidth theft and it could put you in violation of a copyright too. It's not worth the risk.

While you design your site, remember you don't have to use all the available space on every web page. When you use all available pixels, the result can be an overwhelmingly cluttered website. Dividing up your site's elements with blank space, can make it easier for visitors to distinguish what elements perform what function. Space can lend just as much value as information.

Using the tools from a host to build your site is great for basic layout, but don't completely rely on them. It is ideal that you add an element of uniqueness and personality to your website. This will mean that you need come up with new design elements that are not obtainable by using the provided options of the host's WYSIWYG editor.

Hosting your own site is a bad idea, even if you've got the money to do it. Do as much of the design yourself as possible, but if you hire someone to host it for you, you won't have to worry about basic security.

Begin by making smaller websites, so you can see your strengths and weaknesses before starting a major site. Create pages that encompass plain text to begin, and build from there as you gain confidence.

As you design a site, look to your target audience. Ask them what is important in the sites they like. This can help you with the design as well as the many features available on your site. Taking advice from your target visitors will help your site be more pertinent.

Now that you know what it takes to design a great site, are you confident to get started today? If you ever need some moral or technical support, keep this article as a helpful reference whenever you want to undertake a new website design project.