Great Web Design Advice For Beginners

Creating a fabulous and effective website is the cornerstone of your online operations. Since you are competing with high-priced pros and seasoned designers, you need a basic idea of how to produce your best site. The following article will offer you an outline of what you need to put into your site, for the best possible outcome.

1. Establish your target audience. You need to know who your visitors are and as much about them as possible. Act as if you are speaking directly to a specific set of people, keeping in mind the tone and attitude you should take. A fine arts website should not be screaming neon, but perhaps a web business aimed at rappers or gamers would be. Know full well from the get go who you are making your site for and how to appeal to them.

2. Statistically quantify your audience. Once you know who they are, find out what their average age is, medium income, gender, time spent online and percentage of total shopping done over the Internet. Such statistics are available online, as are tracking measures for you to further narrow the specifics of your visitors.

3. Produce a rough draft of your site. Sketch out the details and layout of what you would like your site to cover and look like. Think like an end user as you create the schematics and visualize the final outcome. Make sure you include strategically placed information and icons, to lead visitors where you want them to go. Keep it simple and easy to navigate. You might even want to ask a few friends what they think of your rough draft before beginning to build.

4. Consider the use of keywords. You want to be prevalent to people searching for your type of site. Keywords will guide visitors directly to you, so you need to think about which words are most suitable and scatter them about your site. It would be a good idea to have a professional source of reference, as search engines can be fickle about your site and often change-up their criteria without warning.

5. Select a good color scheme and template. Try not to get too creative, unusual or flashy. Although the most beautiful and beaming colors may look great on curtain fabric, a computer monitor is an entirely different ballgame. Go easy on the eyes and select muted or neutral colors that do not take away from text and your navigational tactics. Keep in mind that your will also be viewed on mobile sites, so the less bells and whistles you have, the easier it will be for pages to load.

6. Use the right tools. Many sites offer free advice and templates you can take advantage of. Putting together a website can be quite simple with the use of these tools and nothing about your creativity will be stifled. Make sure you don't get carried away, keeping in mind the fact that end-users are the ultimate judge and jury of your site's attractiveness and functionality. Check out free forums for opinions and advice on the best design tools available.

A great website will grab the attention of visitors and keep them on the page. The right keywords will specifically invite the people your site is intended for and increase your chances of success. Use the above suggestions to develop an effective website that your audience will enjoy and keep coming back to.

Building Your Own Unique Website   Website Design Tips: Creating Easy Navigation   Web Designer Jobs - Train For Your Future   What Do You Want To Know About How To Make A Website?   Does Your Website Seek To Impress?   Proper Website Design Can Really Improve Your Leads   

The Top 5 Web Design Trends of 2012

It may seem as if the trends of web design never stop changing. New applications and design schemes are being developed and tested constantly to the point that it is hard to tell what trends are most effective. To stay on top of your website and take advantage of all the web traffic, you can follow the top five trends of web design for 2012.

Maintain function and visibility on mobile devices. There is no denying that people are accessing the Internet from a variety of devices nowadays. With the influx of smartphones and tablets, it is no surprised that more users are more likely to log on to websites with an iPhone instead of an iMac anymore. Too often businesses do not have a functioning and visibly attractive mobile version of the website and users turn to sites that are more friendly for mobile devices. Be careful to only include low-resolution images and videos to ensure that the site loads quickly even over a 3G network. Streamline the content to get information to your users on the go.

Integration with social networking websites is a must. By now, you should have at least set up a Twitter and Facebook account for your business, but there are many other social media sites to consider as well, including Pinest, one of the latest sites to emerge. These social networking and media sites can generate serious revenue, but only if done correctly. You must directly connect your website to your pages on sites like Facebook to keep the user active and interested. Your customers are looking for opportunities to share your content and feature your website, but you have to make it easy for them.

Keep browsing focused with fixed navigation. Too often, users have a tendency toward impatience and end up scrolling and clicking all over the website and before long they are lost in a web of pages. By using fixed navigation, the logo as well as the top and left navigation tabs will remain visible regardless of scrolling up or down or clicking on a new page. Fixed navigation keeps users focused on the most important things about your business and presents the content in the best light possible. Be wary of how much screen space the fixed navigation takes up, however, because they can claim much of the viewable space.

Allow for easy navigation with a multi-column menu. The debate is finally over about which type of navigation menu users prefer. Many studies have shown that users spend more time and find more value in websites that use a multi-column menu. The single column menu does not allow the user to browse through the content as quickly and does not provide the user an overview of the website. For this reason, users are showing a strong preference for the multi-column menu despite any concerns about the submenus becoming too burdensome.

HTML5 and CSS3 are the new tools in web design. Although these coding languages are still being developed and evolving as you read this, web designers everywhere are already in love with the advantages and applications of HTML5 and CSS3. Now you can feature complex animations without all the messy lines of code that ultimately limit the load time of your website. Features that are now possible with HTML5 and CSS3 include creating shadows around boxes and text, rounding corners and rotating through multiple background images.

As you consider updating your web design in 2012, you must implement these five top trends. With all of the advances in web design, this list is just scratching the surface of possibilities but all great websites need to have these elements.

Website Design Tips: Creating Easy Navigation   Building Your Own Unique Website   Web Designer Jobs - Train For Your Future   What Do You Want To Know About How To Make A Website?   How to Design a Quality Web Site   

Small Business Websites - Make A Website For Free

If you are interested in learning how to make a website, it is quite likely that you have found that the process could prove to be an extremely expensive endeavor. However, there is a company that now allows you to build a website for free! This company is called "Weebly". It is based in San Francisco, California. Founded in the year of 2006, the company's goals is to ensure that people have the opportunity to share their information on the internet with a high level of ease and efficiency. To date, well over 12 million individuals have successfully learned to build a website for their small businesses and personal pursuits. If you are interested in building small business websites for free, you should consider utilizing the tools and resources offered by Weebly.

Individuals that elect to create websites for their small businesses with Weebly require no programming experience. The website makes it exceptionally simple to build an online presence. The building program is referred to as a "Drag and Drop" system. It does not matter if you are interested in adding text information, pictures, high quality videos, or even maps - you simply take the components that you wish to add to your website and drag them to the location that you prefer within the website builder program. You do not have to install any type of complicated software in order to successfully construct a website. You can simply create the website directly inside of the web browser that you use daily. In addition to this, you do not ever have to worry about installing and configuring upgrades.

If you own a small business, it is critical that your website appears professional. By constructing an official looking website, you are bound to get larger amounts of traffic. In turn, that traffic transitions into sales. Weebly offers its users well over one hundred unique themes that they may choose from. Not only do you have the ability to customize the overall appearance of the website with a theme of your choice, but you may also customize the fonts of the text within the website, the color of the text, and several other components of the appearance. If you are educating in programming languages, such as HTML and even CSS code, you have the ability to enter the "Advanced Theme Editor" region of the website, which will allow you a high level of flexibility when it comes to the design of your website.

Weebly understands that small business owners often require assistance in constructing their online presence. The company ensures that they offer each and every single individual the ability to obtain service quickly and easily. Not only does the company provide a wide array of helpful tutorials that include step-by-step directions and screenshots, they also offer one-on-one customer support. Furthermore, the company offers extremely fast and powerful webhosting services. If you have a desire to build your online presence and want to do it in an inexpensive manner, Weebly is the best way to go!

Building Your Own Unique Website   Website Design Tips: Creating Easy Navigation   Web Designer Jobs - Train For Your Future   What Do You Want To Know About How To Make A Website?   Don't Exclude   

The Basic Elements of Web Design

Web design has come a long way from the early years' simple, text-based websites to today's rich and interactive websites. Internet site design has also gained global popularity over the years due to the increasing number of dependency on the Internet for information. As such, different companies and groups are increasingly taking their businesses online to take advantage of the global traffic with the aim of expanding their client base. However, it is not enough to simply own a website; today's competitive market requires that a website be both functional and desirable to attract viewers. There are basic website design elements that every site should have to have both aesthetic and functional properties.

There are certain standards that web designers must adhere to, to make their creations parallel with those of other design communities. These standards are given by W3 consortium to make sure validity of different website functions such as HTML, CSS, and XHTML. These standards are in place to counter the work of amateur web designers, and the distribution and use of pirated web design software. An aspiring website designer must learn the syntax of a webpage and be able to define different principles related to designing error-less web pages.

A webpage must have balance, that is, equal distribution of light and heavy elements. Website design balance is necessary for the page layout. Visual balance must not only be achieved in the first view of a webpage, but throughout the rest of the page as well. There are three types of balance used when designing a website; symmetrical, asymmetrical, and discordant symmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is essential and when evenly placing elements in a page; light elements on the right should match with light elements on the left. Though challenging, create asymmetrical balance by varying the sizes and positions of colors, images, and textures in a page. Discordant designs are for websites that suggest motion or action. They stimulate people to think by creating an uneasy or uncomfortable feeling among viewers.

Content is key when designing a website. There are two major ways that content can help a website. First, it will help the search engine optimization for the website. It is of no use to have a stunning website that will never be viewed by visitors. By inputting optimization practices such as keywords in your content, you will boost your ranking on search engine result pages, thus increasing your visibility. Secondly, your content is what will mainly drive traffic to your website. By consistently providing relevant and updated information in your website that is concurrent with what your targeted traffic is looking for, you will be increasing traffic to your website and encouraging customer loyalty among your visitors.

A professional designer creates contrast in a webpage. Contrast is not limited to hues and colors. It should also be applied to various elements such as images, vital texts and headings to draw attention to the contrasted sections. A designer can make contrast by using a variety of font sizes, typing styles, colors, and weights on different elements in a webpage.

Building Your Own Unique Website   Website Design Tips: Creating Easy Navigation   Web Designer Jobs - Train For Your Future   What Do You Want To Know About How To Make A Website?   How to Choose a Graphic Design Professional for Your Website   Why We Need a Good Web Design   

How To Choose The Best Source For Affordable Custom Website Design

When it comes to websites, there are many options available. The options continue to grow on a daily basis! These days, even companies that were originally only in the business to sell domain names, now sell website design services as well. They even offer custom website design at an affordable price. By doing this, the large corporations are taking away from the independent designers who do great custom web work. Nevertheless, more and more companies are offering custom website design services.

As a consumer, it's your responsibility to shop around, do your research and choose the best source to design your custom website. This article gives you a few tips on how to choose:

Tip #1 - Who Will Be In Charge Of Your Project? Name And Number! It's very very important to know who exactly will be in charge of your custom website design project. Is there a huge team managing your project? Will you receive a response from a different person every time you ask to receive a project update? Is the person in charge available via email or via phone? Will they be available on weekends should you need to discuss a quick problem or suggestion? It's very important to know who exactly is in charge of your custom website design project. It's a horrible feeling to NOT know how many people are developing your website, and who's in charge. If you cannot get a name and number of the main individual in charge of your project, this can only mean one thing: NO ONE IS IN CHARGE OF YOUR PROJECT!

Tip #2 - Find Out Exactly How Long Your Custom Website Project Will Take If the company you're about to choose for a custom website design cannot give you a good and accurate estimate on how long your website project will take, take that as a huge warning sign! When working with an experienced designer or design company, they will surely know just about how long a project will take, and they should be able to provide you with a very accurate estimate. Now, don't expect them to give you a precise day and time - let's not be too anal! But do expect for them to give you a monthly or weekly time frame. And, don't be scared to move on to the next company if they cannot get the job done within an adequate time frame.

Tip #3 - Find Out Costs, And If Payment Plans Are Available Typically a custom website design company will have contracts and other legal paperwork (whether physical or electronic) for their clients to read over and sign. When coming across companies such as these, it's extremely important to look over these documents to figure out the final price of the custom website design project. Many times, large design firms will hide the final price within the terms and conditions. You thought your custom site was only going to be less than an arm and a leg - turns out they want to charge you 2 arms and 2 legs! Read over all paperwork and be certain about how much you're about to invest for your custom website. And don't be scared to ask if a payment plan is available. And if no payment plan is available, or if they are going to charge you large interest rates, move on! Find a designer or design firm who can work with you and your financial capabilities.

Tip #4 - Is This Company Actively Involved In Creating Custom Websites? Be sure to ask to see recently completed website designs before working with a custom website design source. If they cannot show at least a few recently completed custom projects, this of course is not good. You want a company that is highly active in the industry and familiar with custom projects. If the company you're considering primarily works with templates, you may want to look at other options. You'll want a designer or company who specializes in "from the ground up" custom work. And yes, there is a huge difference between the two!

Tip #5 - Listen And Observe - If You Get A Good Feeling, Go For It! It all comes down to how you feel. If the company you're considering hiring doesn't give you a good feeling inside, that isn't good! You definitely don't want to settle for less than the best, or choose a company because they're good at talking over you and using a crafty-worded sales pitch. Never be afraid to say "No thanks", and always go with your gut feeling. It's usually always good to have at least a short "real" and "down to earth" conversation with the company or designer, just to get a better feel for how they really present themselves. If they're easy to communicate with, easy to understand and easy to work with - looks like you have yourself a winner!

Simply put, do your homework when picking and choosing a designer for your custom website project. Yes, they should be affordable, and yes they should be straight forward when it comes to answering difficult questions. Knowing who will be in charge of your project is critical, and their level of activity in creating custom websites is equally important. So, be sure to work out a great deal that's both affordable and acceptable and keep in touch with whoever is in charge of your brand new custom website design from project initiation to project completion!

Building Your Own Unique Website   Website Design Tips: Creating Easy Navigation   Web Designer Jobs - Train For Your Future   What Do You Want To Know About How To Make A Website?   

Why Hire a Website Designer? Can't I Do It Myself Cheaper?

The cost of hiring a website designer is something that crops up regularly. Especially with all the television adverts showing you just how easy it is to build a website (even a complicated ecommerce shopping website) - if only you sign your life away with the company producing the commercial.

So why should you pay a website designer instead?

Can't you just use WordPress or the even easier Flash based services like Moonfruit?

Won't that work just as well?

Regardless of whether you're talking about a startup website or a bigger one, there are pros and cons to using a website designer versus a DIY build it yourself approach.

The free or cheap services out there are good for home sites such as your personal blog where you natter about what you've done recently and upload photos for friends and relatives to see. But, to be honest, if that's all you want to do then you'd get almost all the same benefit from a simple Facebook page.

But a business website is a representation of your business on the internet. Increasingly it's the first "shop front" that customers will encounter.

Which means that if the foot of the page says something like "free website provided by... ", your potential customers will immediately know that you don't much care about how your business is represented on the internet.

If you're a plumber or other word-of-mouth type business, that may work fine.

But for almost anyone else, this DIY approach is likely to backfire.

Unless you don't value your time, there will be a learning curve associated with your "free" website. The person showing you what to do on the 30 second advert practised for hours to make things look as easy as they claim. And if you've done ten or twenty similar sites already, it probably is that easy.

For instance, an experienced website designer can properly set up a WordPress website in under half an hour. That would include all the tweaking to sort out the stuff the default installation puts on the site, installing a variety of plugins to help stop spam, make contacting you easy, make the on-site SEO work like a dream and maybe even change the header on the default theme so that it matches your image.

Then they'll spend quite a bit more time making sure that all the content is added to the website and is properly optimised so that Google's robots will drool with enthusiasm when they crawl it.

You'll spend the first few hours trawling YouTube for some decent tutorial videos, struggle to follow some of them when they skip over a vital step or something's changed since the video was shot, and so on.

In the same way that you wouldn't tinker with a modern car yourself apart from adding fuel and checking things like the tyre pressures, the same goes for a creating modern website.

It's actually cheaper in the long run to pay a modest fee and get a properly installed website up and running. It will almost certainly be quicker as well - you've paid your website designer so they will do their job whereas if you're creating your own site there's a good chance that you'll leave it until tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that.

So the simple answer to why hire a website designer rather than do it yourself is that you'll get a better job done, faster and less fraught than trying to do it yourself.

You can always specify that you want to do any updates to the site yourself, such as adding new blog posts on a regular basis. That's different because the basic framework will already be there, ready for you to use.

But the initial site creation is best left to an expert so that it's done to specification, on time and on budget.

Deep down, you know that makes sense!

Building Your Own Unique Website   Website Design Tips: Creating Easy Navigation   Web Designer Jobs - Train For Your Future   What Do You Want To Know About How To Make A Website?