Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Is web design a skill you want to cultivate? Are there many goals on your plate, but your lack of knowledge in website creation is keeping you from them? If you are looking to better your website design skills then continue on to the article below for some helpful insights in this area.

Choosing the right graphics can either make or break a website. Keep in mind that PNGs are much better than large and poorly working bitmap images. For screenshots, text buttons, and other non-photographic images, use PNG if the image has more than 256 colors, and GIF if not. For pictures, use JPEG images.

You want to ensure that your site has passed the NoScript test. Download the NoScript extension on the Firefox web browser and activate it to see if your website can still be read. It is necessary that you pass it in order to sell items or services online as most of these functions require script or you won't be generating revenue.

You should update your content and get rid of expired content regularly. If there is content on your page highlighting an event that is already part of past history, your readers are going to abandon you quickly. It is an expectation from users that you maintain the site and keep your information fresh, or else they think your site is ill-kept or abandoned. Set up a review schedule so you are able to update the content, and remove the items that have nothing to offer anymore.

Be conscious of your background. Animated GIF backgrounds and complicated patterns on your website can be very distracting to viewers trying to absorb your content. Choose a background that is not too distracting for your readers, and that goes well with the rest of your design.

One tool amateur web designers should use when creating graphics for their sites is Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop really speeds up the development of even complex websites. Building a site from scratch can be overwhelming for amateur designers, so take advantage of design tools and programs that can do some of the heavy lifting for you.

Keep frames off your page. People like frames, but search engines will not see your info if it is inside a frame. If your important content isn't visible by search engines, you won't achieve a high ranking. When this happens, you won;t get a lot of visitors.

Always make sure that the navigation on your website is clear, user-friendly and easy to maintain. How your navigation links are placed on your site will impact how long visitors stay on your site. Your navigation structure should be easy to navigate for the best user experience.

Test your site early and test it frequently. This will give your site great usability. Make sure you continue to test it as you grow and improve your site.

A website counter is outdated and not attractive. Though you may think it adds to the appeal, your visitors will not agree. This is something that is not necessary.

Most hosts provide design tools that make building a simple site easy, but these tools will not cover you when you want more advanced features. You want to integrate your own personality into this site, and this means tweaking and adding some things on your own without the drag-and-drop site-builder the host offers.

Talk to other web designers to make sure that you have adequately learned what you needed to in order to build your site. Knowing as much as possible about every facet of web page design is key to giving yourself the ability to design great websites.

If you are just starting out in website design, use a simple template for your layout, then modify it with your own code. You want to begin small and then expand at a later time when you are familiar with the entire website design process.

Usability tests that are task based are a good way to see how effective your website's http://absorbedchamber7666.page.tl/Reasons-YOU-NEED-TO-Make-YOUR-BRAND_NEW-Car-Biofuel-Compatible.htm design is. The purpose of these is to find functionality or information buried within your website. If you have a well-designed site, users won't have a problem doing this. If it isn't, the task helps you understand how to improve your website.

Get a professional mentor. Even if you want to tackle most of the site building yourself, having professional advice can greatly ease the process. When you do this, you almost ensure that you yourself will become a pro one day, if you stick to learning.

FileZilla is a great piece of software to help you upload your website, but ensure you fill out all of the settings in the quick menu. By doing this, when logging back onto the server, you'll just have to choose your own personalized settings off the menu. You will be surprised at how much time this can save you.

Use copy and paste to help you create multiple webpages for your website. Copy the bulk of the code and then tweak it to change the content, heading and navigation menu. The index page can be worked off of ad infinitum.

If your site contains a corporate logo, ensure that clicking it takes visitors back to the home page. It is common these days for sites to have a logo or image that visitors can click on to return to the home page. A static logo can irritate your users, because that makes them hunt for a separate "Home" link. Having a logo that is clickable makes your website much more easy to navigate.

Make your own favicon. A favicon will help users who add your website to their bookmark see your page more easily. As they look through their bookmark list, your favicon will stand out more than the bookmarks of other sites. Just be sure that you favicon is aligned with the theme of your site.

Now that you gained some more knowledge on website design are you feeling a little more confident on this subject? You should. If not, then go ahead and reread this article so that you are feeling like you understand web design in a way, that makes you confident when thinking about the subject.