What Your Web Design Is Missing

More and more of our lives take place online these days, so web pages that do not work well are not going to receive much positive attention. If you must know more about good web design, the following tips are important.

If you’re designing a website, make sure the code you write has a valid HTML+CSS. Although most browsers can make sense of code that isn’t valid, it could be rendered correctly or incorrectly. Valid code will render the same way most of the time in modern browsers. You can check the validity of your HTML code with an HTML validator.

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.

Don’t try to fit too much onto one page when you’re designing a website. If your page is too busy it will take a lot longer to load and can overwhelm visitors. When you’re going to be putting up a lot of content, create pages for everything you can to reduce the clutter on your page.

Include a link to the homepage on every page of your site. One of the best ways to do this is to make a graphic title for your page that can be included on all pages. Web users are used to clicking on a graphic to return home so there won’t be a learning curve to navigating your site.

Smaller pages are better. Users with slower Internet connections might decide that the wait isn’t worth it if your site loads slowly. Reduce your load times so visitors have no reason to leave.

Make sure that you use the right anchor text. The anchor text of a link should clearly describe what the visitor should expect to see when he clicks on the link. For instance, if a link leads to your widget ordering page, the anchor text might read “Order widgets.” Specifically avoid using “click here” as anchor text.

Make your links obvious. Customers do not like spending time wading through your site searching for something they are interested in. Having a site map, as well as providing big, prominent links will help your viewer find what they are looking for without wasting time in a hunt. Lead them to your information.

Master your subject matter fully before you try to share it on the internet. If you want to have a blog or website, you need to research anything you plan on posting. People will not come to your website if you don’t appear to know what you’re talking about. Having a thorough understanding of your subject matter is vital to having a successful website.

It is easier than you think, as you can see from the tips here, to create an effective website that is high in quality. With a little practice, you will find that you can design a website that showcases your content and is easy to maintain. Keep this article handy to refer back to from time to time.