Web Design Tips

Designing Easy Navigation

Have you ever been to a beautiful looking website from a large corporation or organization only to leave in frustration because you could not find what you are looking for? There's nothing more frustrating than getting lost in a website.

The ultimate no-no in website navigation is to have a visitor hit a dead end; where the only option is to literally back out by hitting the "back" button and returning to the previous page.

Keep navigation clear and consistent. All links of your website should be on every page, in the same location, and in the same sequence. Don't put your navigation links in different places in different pages.

The best website's are logical and intuitive. They're designed in such a manner that visitors can navigate through them with a minimum of effort.

Formatting Your Text

Generally speaking, web-safe fonts are: Arial, Verdana, Courier New, Times New Roman and Comic Sans MS. Verdana wide body makes it the clearest font for on-screen reading, even at small sizes.

Only use Heading Text Format when typing in the main headings within your document. Use Heading 1 for your first heading, and then progressively use the remainder headings within your document.

It's important to use heading tags (h1, h2 etc.), bolding and italicizing in your content. Use heading tags for breaking up your page content into subject areas. It's not only good for search engines; it's kinder to your visitors as well.

Web Page Titles

The title of your web page is one of the most important ranking criteria for search engines. Take care to build good titles to be well ranked in search engines. Add key word phrases to your page titles, it’s very important to title each page of your website.

Site Map

Create a site map containing all your pages, and link to it directly from your homepage. Search engine robots will follow the link to your site map and will most likely add all your pages to the index.

Don’t create a design, which depends on text appearing in exactly the same format in the same place on every single user’s screen. It just isn’t possible.

Link Color and Consistency

When designing your web page, you should set the link color so that it is easy to read and stands out on the page. Do not make the links the same color as the rest of your text. If your text is blue or purple, make sure to change the "link" as these are the default colors for most browsers. The best colors, however, may be those that come as default, because they are universally recognized by most Internet surfers.

Layout Tables

Lay out your page with tables, and set the width in percentage terms instead of a fixed number of pixels. That way, your page will always fit the screen, without the need to scroll horizontally.

Link Popularity

Link popularity is important because it is a major factor used by search engines in influencing a site's position in search results. Generally, sites with more inbound-links will be positioned higher than a similar site with less.

Rethink your link popularity, i.e. the number of websites, which are linking to your website. Link to website, which are related to yours. All link are important, but related links are more valuable than a link from an unrelated website. Start by getting a link in the two biggest directories Yahoo and Google (open Directory). Being listed in these is an absolute must as they generate huge amounts of traffic.

Stay away from link farms Google and Yahoo may penalize or ban your website for using automated link exchange programs. Building links is time consuming, but with hard work and time, you can gain good search engine rankings.

Reciprocal link building is good to use, but it’s the number of inward links that make the difference not the number of outward or reciprocated links you have for your website.

Organization

Creating a useful, website begins with good organization. This in turn, requires careful planning. Write your pages for multiple types of Web browsers-to provide trouble-free access to the widest possible audience. The World Wide Web is a multi-platform, non-browser specific medium.

Test You Site

Test your site so that it looks good in different browsers and resolutions.

Accessibility

It should not matter whether people browse your web pages using Netscape, Explorer, Opera, Lynx, WebTV, Net Phonics’ Web-On-Call, Mobile Telephones, or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's, or palmtop's, the little computers with screens the size of a credit card).

Each browser ought to render your informational web pages without problems. If a web page is designed properly, blind individuals, or anyone using text-to-voice or Braille displays, can easily listen to and review your work.

Quick Design Tips

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