Learning Web Design As A Side Job

Aug 27, 2012 by jamagl30

Design informative error pages. Many times someone will click onto a broken link, or a link that has been moved, and receive a generic error page that confuses them. Design your error pages so that you give a visitor a reason they may have gotten that error, along with a link to your home page so that they remain on your site.

To help you attract a more professional crowd to your site, make sure you design your site with no spelling errors. When designing the site, utilize a spell checker and if need to, a grammar checker. If you have a site with poor spelling and grammar, people will not want to do business with you because they will think it is unprofessional.

Although it is common to see the www. at the front of a website URL, you should try to make sure that you can access your site whether you choose to include it or not. This will make it much easier for anyone to access regardless of how they type it.

Creating a site map is a very important part of the web design process. A site map is an effective way to inform visitors of the various kinds of content that your website has to offer, and is a great tool for navigating your website. Search engine crawlers will also utilize your site map for similar reasons, and therefore, including a site map will help boost your search rankings. Make sure your website has a site map, and that it is through.

Avoid using frames. Most sites have abandoned frames on their own as better alternatives have become available, but there are still sites out there that are trapped in 1996. Alternatives to navigational frames include fixed-position navigation panels, having navigation in multiple areas (e.g. left and bottom) or simplifying page structure so that navigational links are never far away.

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.

If you find yourself stuck in the design process, remember that you have the entire Internet at your disposal to look for examples. There are literally millions of websites that you can browse to find the inspiration that you need. Find a website that you like, identify what makes that website appealing, and determine if it is an idea that you can borrow and improve upon. Keep in mind that in order for your website to be truly successful, it is not enough to simply borrow ideas. You must also improve upon them.

When designing your website, you should avoid using too many different types of fonts. You must also consider how different fonts appear on the standard computer screen; smaller serif fonts (Times New Roman, for example) are somewhat hard to read. Most sites use Vedrana, which is easily read in different colors and sizes.

Make sure your site includes a search box. This is really important, because people are accustomed to having that function, and when they want to find something on your site, they need to be able to find it. If they can’t find what they need, they may leave your site altogether.

Make sure your website’s call to action (CTA) is highlighted in your web design. If the visitor can not easily find what you really want them to do next, then you will be hard pressed to get them to move forward in your action cycle. Call out your CTA using icons, white space, a font size increase, bolding or some other format change that works with your design.

Work on your time management skills when developing a website if you hope to get it done in a timely fashion. Because website building requires so many smaller tasks, you might be tempted to put them off until a later date. Before you know it, those little tasks have piled up and have become overwhelming. Make sure you handle jobs as they arise.

As was discussed in the above article, many people create websites so they can advertise them in order to make a profit. But not all advertisements are the same, and you need to know how to strategically place them so your potential customers click on the ads. Apply the tips and tricks from this article so you can have more people clicking on your ads.

Malcolm Igtanloc generates e-books on web design devon