Building A Better Website: Design Tips That Work

Kal Bartal Jan 20, 2013 · 4 min read

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Building a brand-new website can be fun or it can be a hassle, or even a mixture of the two. How can you figure out what you need to do and how to do it? These tips should help you create a basic plan to begin your website.

Eliminate pop-up windows from all pages on your site to create a user-friendly experience. Pop-ups are an irritating distraction, at best, for most web surfers, and the possible benefits you could reap with them are extremely modest. When you annoy your visitors with these popup adverts, they will more than likely leave your website and vow never to return.

A newsletter can help you to get more repeat visitors to you website. Giving your customers a reminder that you’re still online and have some great deals or new content that will bring them back to your site for more. Offer the signup form as a link off to the side on your site. Make sure you have a way to keep track of who signed up. Only send out a newsletter to people who have subscribed to it, otherwise you will have angry customers.

TIP! FileZilla is an excellent file server, and it gives you the opportunity to program your domain, username, and port settings right into its quick menu. That way, the next time you log back into your server, you just need to go to the menu and choose personalized settings.

Use a layout for your site that you can work with and that is basic so that you understand the fundamentals of web design first. You can advance beyond the basics when you are more comfortable with the website development process.

Internet Connections

Videos on your site won’t be accessible to all viewers, including those with slower Internet connections. While it’s tempting to upload your multimedia at 5,000 kb/s, this speed may be too much for some people’s internet connections to handle. This means that viewers are going to be starting at the “buffering” screen more than the actual video.

TIP! Ensure that you’re including a method of receiving feedback from your site’s visitors. If you have forgotten something or have made an element of your site confusing to use, they will be able to tell you.

If you are looking to get started with web page design, make use of the unlimited number of resources available to you. There is no shortage of books, magazines, and websites that will teach you about every aspect of website development, from the basics to advanced concepts. Reading about website design and looking at examples is a good way to discover website design and improve your skills.

Consider using shared hosting and avoid the VPS or dedicated host. You don’t know your site’s traffic load, and there is no reason to overpay.

Don’t hire friends or family to build your site. Regardless of how much design experience your family member brings to the table, your close personal relationship will make it difficult or impossible to properly express your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their work.

TIP! It is myth that creating a great website has to cost you a fortune. For each costly, popular program or tool available for web design, there are equally useful programs or tools that are much cheaper.

Your website should have a favicon. This simple icon will help visitors distinguish your site from others should they add it to their bookmarks. Your favicon will stand out on a bookmark or favorite list. When designing a favicon, ensure it’s consistent with the logo and theme of your site.

Although you could discover other designs and strategies you love, you must ensure you’re always being imaginative when it comes to designing your own site. Put your creative vision into action, while sprinkling in great features and design elements from other webpages. If you do this, you will be maximizing all of your efforts in your website design.

Be careful with the color combinations you use when designing your website. Make sure that text can be easily read against background colors. Generally speaking, it is easier on the viewer’s eyes when they see darker text on paler backgrounds, rather than the other way around. If you are not sure whether or not your chosen color scheme is user friendly, ask for some feedback from some of your friends.

TIP! Be sure that your content can be viewed around the globe. Content on your website should be understood by many people, regardless of where they live.

After reading this article you should feel confident in your ability to create a winning website. Create a budget, locate all needed resources, and start to draft a visual plan for the site. It is not necessary to spend a fortune creating a website. It just takes time, a little creativity and a willingness to learn. Good luck.