More and more businesses are learning the importance of an online presence. However, when a website doesn’t work right, the business suffers. Learn what is involved with developing a successful website with these helpful tips and ideas.
Add a link where your visitors can send you feedback. This lets you see if anything is confusing, or if you’re missing something on the page, so that you may fix it as you can. Negative and positive feedback are useful in improving your website.
If you are agonizing over what color your website’s background should be, don’t be afraid to go with plain, effective white. Few visitors take issue with a white background, which looks professional or, at worst, neutral. Text content is also more clear on a white background. Complicated background designs, however, can be distracting, or make your site appear amateur. For backgrounds, simpler is usually preferable.
Internet Explorer
Make certain that your site is accessible for various incarnations of Internet Explorer. Many people still use old IE versions. The older versions do not render all site elements to comply with web standards, which means using workarounds. Familiarize yourself with the concept of the notorious “box model bug” which caused trouble for Internet Explorer for years.
Do your best to optimize the loading times on every page of your website. Visitors will leave your site quickly if they have to wait on something to load. Minimize the amount of Flash, scripts and graphics on your site. Optimize the site with HTML, SSI files, caching options and minimize CSS and JS coding.
Choose fonts that are legible, and look professional. The font is one of the first items people notice when coming to a site. Fancy fonts, such as those that look like gothic lettering or calligraphy, can often be hard to read. Other fonts, like Comic Sans, send a message that you aren’t professional. Fonts on your website can be set to match the default font used by the computer of your visitors. That can ruin your design!
Don’t ever place pop-ups on websites. Having well placed ads can add income to your site, but popups will only annoy your visitors. It will end up driving visitors away instead of getting them to read and click. Keep your ads simple; there’s no need for wild pop-ups.
A website counter is outdated and not attractive. Visitors really don’t care how many other people have visited your site. Get rid of the counter and monitor your traffic by other means.
Clearly, website development can be accomplished easily. Once you understand all of the fundamental principles of web design, you’re ready to start incorporating your own unique ideas. Use all of these tips to ensure success.