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Advice On How To Create Good Quality Web Design
It is widely known that in order to have a successful website, you must have good web design. However, website design can be hard to learn, given the vast array of sites and sources that cover the subject. Now you've found this article! Continue on for some of the newest and most practical web design tips to help you get ahead.
Make sure that your website has a tagline incorporated into the design. Using a tagline simply means that you will need to come up with a quick statement that lets visitors know what your site is all about. There are about eight crucial seconds to grab and keep a visitor's attention, so having an easy-to-understand tagline is crucial.
Avoid cramming page elements together. Each section of your page should be naturally separated from each other, as this makes the purpose of each section more clear. The easiest way to separate sections is by using DIVs, but there are other ways, including absolute positioning (not recommended), the CSS margin command, and floats.
Break up long text blocks. Having a huge wave of text is unnecessary for any site, especially when you can break it up by using images, or even separating it into different pages. Boring your viewers will only make them leave, so keep things as simple and fresh as possible.
Use ALT tags whenever possible. These helpful tags describe an image to a viewer, assisting the visually impaired, as well as those who prefer to browse without images. As an added bonus, some search engines include these tags in their rankings, so you may get a boost by using them.
Incorporate a site map into your website. Site maps serve several purposes. First, they make navigation throughout your site much easier for visitors. Second, the major search engines can utilize it to index your entire site. This means your search engine optimization improves, and your website receives more exposure, giving you more profit-earning potential.
If you plan on having a commercial site, you should seriously consider buying your own web hosting. Most free host sites force you to display their advertisements, which is counter-intuitive if you are attempting to sell something as well. Purchase your own hosting to avoid this advertising hassle, so that you can choose your own ads.
One thing you should always take into account when you're thinking about web design is the latest technology that is out today. As technology advances to does the web, so be sure you are always up to date with what is changing so that you're that much more understanding of how the web works.
Use custom error pages to make your site more informative. For instance, if you want people to report dead links on your site, either put a server-side script on your 404 page or have a form or email address that visitors can use to report the error. You should have custom pages for 403, 404, and 500 errors, at the very least.
Try to code using only CSS. We're moving away from table-based sites to only CSS sites because they are reusable, accessible, and they can greatly reduce your file sizes. This allows you greater control of the appearance of your site. There are various CSS resources you can use, therefore, knowing CSS is invaluable to web design.
If the design of your website needs to be mobile friendly, keep in mind that mobile devices have smaller screens and limited bandwidth. To account for smaller screens, you should try to design your website as a single narrow column so that the user only needs to navigate vertically, as opposed to both horizontally and vertically. Limited bandwidth means that you should be extra concerned about your file sizes. You can also opt to create a separate version of your website specifically for mobile devices.
A lot of times when you load up a page to your file server, you cannot find it when you type in the address via your browser. You always need to double-check and ensure that you named the file correctly. Some people literally waste days trying to pinpoint the problem they believe is major, when in reality it's only a simple typo.
If you have ideas for multiple websites, it's a good move to go ahead and reserve a domain name now. Be creative and pick out something that you want, but make sure you reserve it now so that you can still have it later on down the road. It is surprising how many other people may have come up with similar ideas. As if everyone is connected in some way.
As an alternative to Photoshop, you could choose to use the GIMP photo editor. GIMP has practically every single feature that Adobe Photoshop does; and instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a program and using up a few hundred MBs of program space, GIMP is 100% free and runs about 35mb.
Web design is one of the most important aspects of a site's success. Unfortunately, because there is a huge wealth of information related to web design and the information is always changing, it can be difficult to learn and stay up to date. Hopefully, you are a little better informed on the topic after taking a look at this article. Implement the techniques discussed here, and begin to reap the benefits of having a professional website!
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