Web Design - The Basics

by Benedict Smythe

Visually appealing websites is one of the reasons why online browsers visit. Along with good web content, attractive and well designed websites entice visitors to come over and over again. If your website is for an online business, this could be very beneficial to you as more traffic would mean more potential customers and most importantly this would mean more revenues.

To design a good website you must learn how to use HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and web page editors. These programs are most helpful to web design newbie as these would facilitate the building of the website. Being a novice at web design, free online tutorials would provide you with invaluable help in building your website.

It is a must to have a definite idea on what you would like your website to look. You should choose the right fonts, graphics, and color as well as page layout. You have to bear in mind however that too much of everything could give negative result. In the case of website building, too many graphics and animations will result to the slow loading of the page. Use graphics sparingly and needless to say, use graphics that have relevance to the content. Of course it is acceptable to use pictures or graphics that would enhance the design of the page but using a picture of your favorite movie star on a website devoted to the care of pets is of course unacceptable. Additionally, glaring colors of the background as well as the text and flashing images would drive visitors away.For sure you wouldn't want visitors to leave when they could be potential customers who could add to your revenues.

Always remember your readers by writing relevant content and be sure that you will be writing topics that your target audience will like. Visitors searching for information would click on links. Be sure to provide strategically placed relevant links at the bottom of your homepage.

Knowing the preference of the target audience would come a long way in ensuring steady traffic. If your website is primarily aimed to give forex information, you should try to achieve a professional look by reducing the graphics and featuring more relevant statistics instead. Now if your target audience is teens, you can give in to your wish of using vibrant colors and featuring video files and clips.

Advertisement is another important factor in web design. Although ads are a source of income it would be wise to keep the ads to the minimum since readers come to your site in search of information and not to read the ads. Moreover, only use ads that have relevance to the content of your website otherwise readers won't be enticed to click on it.

Lastly, the most important factor in web design is keeping the website simple as graphic and animation- rich website would often cause slow loading. All the features and designs made will be useless if visitors will be forced to click on the next link because your page is unavailable or slow to load.