Web Design Tips You Can Use Today

There is much to be gained from web design. If this interests you, then you are in the right place. This article can offer you advice on becoming an expert in web design.

Dont use splash pages for your site unless required by law, and especially dont use a Flash intro. Most people just want to get to your content as quickly as possible, and dont care to look at useless splash pages. If you have some amusing content that you absolutely want visitors to see, integrate it into the homepage instead.

On the Internet today, speed is where its at. So you must make sure everything on your site loads fast. If your visitors are waiting forever while something is loading on your site, there is a good chance they will quickly leave and never return.

Your site must be simple to navigate if you want to attract visitors. Place your links so they can be found easily. A navigation menu will also help visitors locate exactly what theyre looking for. Link back to the homepage from every other page on your site; this makes it far easier for users to get around.

Break up long text blocks. Having a huge wave of text is unnecessary for any site, especially when you can break it up by using images, or even separating it into different pages. Boring your viewers will only make them leave, so keep things as simple and fresh as possible.

Always mark files that must be opened in an external program with an icon. Many sites host PDF files, and less commonly, DOC files, that must be opened in Foxit Reader and Microsoft Word/OpenOffice, respectively. These files should be marked with an icon representing the file type, and a link to download the appropriate viewer if the user does not have it.

If users want to, let them cancel an action. Actions include registering for any e-mail notifications, browsing the site, or filling out forms. If your visitors cant easily change their mind and back out of registering for a site feature, they may feel forced to complete a transaction. This isnt good for your web traffic or your reputation.

To help your web pages load quickly, you should compress all the images on the website page. If you have images that are compressed then pages will load much faster. Nothing is more frustrating to viewers than waiting for a 250k graphic to load when it should really only be 20k.

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.

Your site should be optimized to handle older editions of Internet Explorer, such as IE7 and IE8. Although many people loathe Internet Explorer, many people surfing the Internet do it on older versions of this web browser. They often dont render elements to web standards, so you will have to work around them. In particular, learn about the famous "box model bug", an old thorn in IE.

You can make good money doing web design if you become an expert at it. Always keep looking for new ways to profit from web design, and you will experience ultimate success.