Web designers have to acquire a lot of different skills to design a website people will want to read. Many sources are out there to give the novice designera a place to start — and this is one of those sources. Read on to learn tips you can use to create better web designs.

Display a tagline in a prominent space on your website. A tagline is seen as a statement that tells people what a business’s site is about. Use clear taglines to help people that visit your page. You only have a few second to get their attention and get them them to look through the whole website.

Incorporate a search function that lets visitors find what they need. If people visit your site for something specific, they will be on the lookout for a search box. If there is no search box, they are not going to take the time to look through all your content. They are just going to move on. Make sure the box is on the right at the tip of the page, which is where most visitors will look first.

Don’t rely on JavaScript too much. Although it provides many methods of building a site that is more responsive, this can cause some problems for some visitors. Web browsers are all different, and each comes out with new versions pretty regularly. Not all visitors have the most current version of their browser. Also, consider that JavaScript isn’t regularly enabled in everyone’s browser. These things prevent users from making use of your website.

File Sizes

Bearing aesthetics in mind, you should remember to keep file sizes small. Your file sizes have a lot to do with the speed of your site loading. You want the speediest load times possible. Even though broadband is common these days, there are still people stuck on 56K connections. Perform a test of your website to be sure that it will load quickly on every speed of internet connection.

Optimize your website for older IE versions. Many people still use old IE versions. These require the use of some workarounds. You should read up on the frustrating “box model bug” that has plagued IE for a long time.

Links should have content with text in them. The purpose is to ensure that your customer or client is clicking on exactly what they are hoping to find. When links do not have text content, the link could be accessed accidentally by keyboard shortcut.

Be sure to run tests early and continue to do test runs frequently. Usability and interaction testing needs to start not long after you start the preliminary design phase of any website. Be sure that you stay diligent about website testing and improvements as it keep growing.

Always use fonts that look professional and are readable. Check out a site’s fonts to rate it’s professional quality. Don’t use fancy or non-standard fonts. Some people may not have these fonts installed on their computers. Fonts on your website can be set to match the default font used by the computer of your visitors. This can look worse.

You don’t have to use every inch of space when you design a website. When the entire screen is full of content, the brain becomes overwhelmed. When you space things out in an appropriate way and have a sense of organization, this will make users feel like they are in control. Sometimes, empty space is underrated.

Hosting your site yourself is not really a great idea, no matter what amount of money you’ve decided to invest in it. Having an experienced team of experts running your server for you, including upgrading the software and dealing with hardware failure, will leave you time to focus on your site itself.

When you are seeking a hosting service to put your website on, do your research and be 100% sure of what is included within the cost. It’s important to understand what your needs are in regards to CPU, RAM, bandwidth, hard drive space and specific software needs like PHP or MySQL. Be certain you understand what you are purchasing.

Do not force visitors to take a specific path which takes their choices from them. This means not pushing surveys or offers into their window that they must complete before they continue. Forcing users to behave in a certain manner can cause alienation; users may avoid your site and badmouth your company.

It helps in the site design process if you continue to learn as you go. By diving into another area each time you master one, you’ll never stop improving. This may make designing your first website a chore, but once you understand the fundamentals, designing subsequent sites will be easy.

Try your best to focus some serious time each day to work on your website. Make a concentrated effort, instead of a hit-and-miss approach periodically. Working on your website is a good way to improve your skills and find new ideas to make your site look more appealing.

Put your logo on the top of every one of your pages. This links your web pages together, and makes your site have continuity. It also helps visitors remember your website. The logo should visually tell a story about your company.

As you have seen, a new web designer must know the basics before they can create stunning websites that also function properly. With all of the resources out there, it may be hard to find the right starting place. The previous paragraphs gave you tips that will help you with many facets of web design.