By Helen Tide


The more you know about best practices for web design, the easier it will be to keep your site up and running. Quality web design makes your site more attractive, but can also help you design websites that are user-friendly and seem genuine. It will increase your traffic, and boost repeat customers. If you want to design a great website, then this article can help to lead the way.

If you are having a company or designer work on your web page, make sure to pay your invoices on time and in full. The company you hire will be responsible for keeping your website up-to-date. When you don't pay them, they are less likely to give you help if something goes wrong on your website. On-time payments help build a good rapport and makes it more likely that you will receive a fast response when any problems arise.

If your site is larger than a few pages, it should be searchable. The best place to put your search text box is in the top right hand corner as that is where the bulk of websites put theirs. Google and FreeFind both offer search functions for your website.

A visual sitemap can help you with advanced planning. Using a visual sitemap lets you keep tabs on how your website looks as you build it. You'll now have the ability to determine any areas which need improving, or areas that have been neglected. Experts agree that a good visual representation is essential for creating a quality site.

Use copy and paste to help you create multiple webpages for your website. Rather than making a fresh HTML code for each page that you have, simply copy the most important part of the code, change it in certain places, and save it under a new file name. By doing this, you can continue to use the master copy over and over again.

Do your best to design a website that is original and will stand out from the others in your niche. It's easy to check this as all you would have to do is visit your competitor's website. You want to be separate from those in the pack, so you don't want your website too similar to someone else's. You risk becoming known as the generic version of your competitors.

Always delete any outdated content that is on your website. If a reader lands on your page and sees an expired offer, it will definitely be a deal-breaker. Allowing information that is outdated to remain on your website is a sign to users that you have not taken the time to update your site and it implies that you don't care about their time. Put removing outdated content on your to-do list, to do every 2-4 weeks.

Stay in contact with friends who are knowledgable about design programs like Dreamweaver or Photoshop to make sure that you don't forget how to use them properly. You want to ensure that you remember everything you learned. It can slow you down quite a bit if you have to review what you've learned while building a website.

Use relevant meta tags to increase site traffic. Your site can show various search engines exactly what your site is all about when you have meta tags. If you use poor meta tags, or worse, don't use them at all, your site will get fewer visitors overall.

Throughout the design process, it is essential to make sure your site's designs looks and works the way you want it to on every web browser, so always check it across all common web browsers. Every device, browser and platform will change how your website displays, which could create a bad user experience. You can find more about which browsers are most in use and focus on them, so hunt down this information. Check how your site behaves on all the major browsers for both PCs and mobile devices.

To work out the visual aspects of your site design, you can use a program like Photoshop to create mockups. Programs like Photoshop are great for new web designers, because it allows them to quickly create professional websites. When you do not possess a program like this one, it can be extremely difficult and time consuming to get enough information to build an appealing site fast.

When you are choosing your background color, white is an effective choice. White backgrounds cause your content to be easily seen, and it gives your site a trustworthy feel and a more professional look. You will come across as an amateur if your site design is cluttered and distracting. You will find that simpler backgrounds are better.

The tips of this article you have read here will help you get started on your layout sketches. Keep studying and learning more about web design, and you will soon find success.




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