Web Design Questions And Answers In This Article

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Web Design Questions And Answers In This Article
A lot of people say that designing websites is extremely challenging. However, this is only a true statement for people who are not armed with the right knowledge or advice on web design. This article contains a number of pieces of advice to help you on your way to designing on the web with ease.

Don't neglect cascading style sheets. Using a style sheet makes it easy to give all pages of your site the same look and feel. It also reduces the file size of your pages, as the CSS file can be accessed once on the server and then from the user's local cache thereafter.

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.

Speed is everything when it comes to the Internet, so make sure that you keep your website's loading time to a minimum. If a visitor has to sit and wait for several minutes while your pages load, they are almost certainly going to click away from your site and go somewhere else, and they probably will not come back to your site.

Make certain that visitors have a way to search for a particular topic on your site. People who are seeking something in particular are bound to be interested in finding a search box upon reaching your site. If you lack one, they may just move on to another website immediately. Put the box on the right-hand top of the page.

Keep your pages to a reasonable length. Add content through new pages on your site, instead of tacking it on to the end of a home page. For the most part, readers are hesitant to keep going on a page that seems to scroll on forever. If you must have a lot of content on one page, include hyperlinks at the top and in sections throughout the page. This allows users to navigate through the available content without excessive scrolling.

It is imperative to replace old content with new. If you have a page that is promoting some type of special event that already went on six months ago, then you have lost readers. Users want to spend their time on sites that are cared for, and leaving up old information shows a lack of attention to the site. Create a regular schedule for updating the content of your page, and weed out anything that has become irrelevant.

Use a tracking service, rather than displaying your visitor counter for all to read. Many websites still display their counters, yet they do not serve any real purpose. There are many high quality tracking services available, and some are even free. Use these instead of showing off how many people visit you.

Use a well known software program that is known for getting the job done to help create a professional looking website. Even without professional training, a web designer with a good grasp of Photoshop can turn out attractive, useful websites very quickly. If you don't have an easy-to-use tool like Photoshop, it will drastically increase the time and effort required to build a professional-looking website.

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.

Test your site often to prevent issues. Running usability and user interaction tests early in the game can really save you frustration in the long run. Continue testing it out as you improve and expand your website.

This helps with your design process, since you learn as you work. When you figure out a certain portion of web design, you need to explore another one. This might really drag out the site-building process, but you will be rewarded with knowledge enough to churn sites out by the dozen once you learn.

As this article previously mentioned, designing websites is perceived by many to be a challenging endeavor. However, web design becomes much easier for people who have the best knowledge and information on how to design websites as efficiently and creatively as possible. Apply this article's tips, and you'll be designing websites in no time!