Many people are getting more interested in web design. This means that more and more people are building their own website. In order to best the competition, read on.
It is always good to add a favicon to your website. The favicon is a 16×16 image file in the .Ico format. This image is the one you see next to the URL bar, next to the title of the page on an opened tab and is also visible on your bookmarks tab if you choose to bookmark a page. The favicon will help users quickly recognize your page in their browser without reading any text or directly viewing the page.
When you are creating graphics or photos for your website, be sure to keep the file size small. If your graphics are too large, your page will load slowly and your visitors will leave. You can find many free or inexpensive graphics programs online that will optimize your images before you load them to your website.
It is important to make use of forums and other information avenues to keep up with new ideas in web design. If you aren’t sure where to begin, do an Internet search to see what you can find.
Retain user information so that people don’t have to waste valuable time re-typing information into forms. For instance, if a visitor registers for your newsletter and they are going to use the same information to make a purchase, be sure the data they’ve already entered is kept, so they do not have to re-enter the same information. “Sticky” data will ensure that the user fills out all the forms they need to instead of leaving when it becomes too difficult.
Test your website in the most popular browsers and platforms to make sure that it displays correctly. Sometimes scripts that work in one browser may not produce the same results in another browser. So you may need take extra measures, like adding a function for browser detection, in order to ensure that your website will display properly under most conditions.
If you have never designed a web page, try using pre-made layouts. These can easily be found online for several blogging web sites like Blogspot or Tumblr. Having an interesting layout will draw attention to content and give the site a professional look. Just make sure your layout is appealing to your target audience!
When designing your site, try to come up with three or four keywords that you expect users to input into search engines as they try to find your page. These keywords should then be repeated frequently throughout the title, page body and description meta tag. This will make it easier for users to locate your site on the web.
Optimize your website of old versions of the IE browser. Everyone loves to hate Internet Explorer, but the sad fact is that a large minority of internet users still use these old versions of IE. Many elements are not in compliance with web standards, so finding a workaround will be required. You should read up on the frustrating “box model bug” that has plagued IE for a long time.
If you are designing a commercial website, you do not want to use free web hosting. This brings annoying ads onto your site, and it detracts from a professional look to your commerce site. Instead, pay for some basic or professional web hosting, in which you do not have to put up with this.
When designing a website, you want to keep the privacy of your customer’s information in mind. Set up proper encryption for submitting data, and never store customer passwords and such in a text document. Make sure you set up your website properly so that your customers know that visiting and interacting with your site is safe.
Do tests on your site to make sure that it’s up and running properly on different operating systems and different type of browsers as well. When you do this you then cover all of your tracks and make sure that as many users as possible are able to browse through your site.
You want to learn as much as you can about web design so you can be as competitive as possible and be better than everyone else. Using these tips, and continuing to learn more, you’ll never fall behind.