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No matter how experienced you may be with web design, you could always use more basics. This is easier said than done when there's such a vast amount of information to sift through on this subject. Fret not, because this article is going to help you obtain those basics in no time at all. You'll find a listing of tips below to facilitate the development of quality websites.

Stay away from lots of graphics on your website. Graphics are important, but too many can yuck things up. Your graphics should not only be decorative; they must also be true improvements. Having enough graphics that don't clutter the site will make your site easier to use, as well.

While you might be inclined to add a lot of bells and whistles to your website, flashing graphics, loud music and neon colors will just distract from the purpose of your website. Visitors who are bombarded by too many sights and sounds might be inclined to leave your website before they even start browsing. Keep the colors simple and the content relevant and your website design will be a winner.

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Make your links obvious. Customers do not like spending time wading through your site searching for something they are interested in. Having a site map, as well as providing big, prominent links will help your viewer find what they are looking for without wasting time in a hunt. Lead them to your information.

Make your links obvious. Customers do not like spending time wading through your site searching for something they are interested in. Having a site map, as well as providing big, prominent links will help your viewer find what they are looking for without wasting time in a hunt. Lead them to your information.

Don't use many fonts as you design your page. Also consider how the fonts look on a regular screen. Small serif fonts are harder to read. Many websites use Verdana, which can be simple to read in various sizes and colors.

Make sure that all the files on your website are small in size. You need these small file sizes regardless of the overall design of your site. Large files cause your website to load slowly. You want your site to load as quick as possible. You must also be aware that everyone doesn't have a high speed connection to the Internet. Check your site, and make sure that it can load quickly even with a slow dial-up internet connection.

For your image tags, always try to include a brief description in the ALT attribute. Not only is this good for search engine optimization, but it is also beneficial to the sight-impaired users who rely on screen readers to describe image tag contents. Make your description short and as descriptive as possible.

Try making separate CSS pages for different browsers with conditional loading when designing websites. Doing this will make it easier to test and maintain your website. You do not want to run into problems when making changes to your site.

To help your website function the way it is intended to, make sure all your links are working. If you have broken links then your visitors may get frustrated when they try to click on something that interests them. Frustrated visitors is not something you want because they end up leaving your site mad.

A great web design tip is to ensure that your site is able to be found with or without the subdomain. You should be able to find your site by typing www.mysitehere.com and also http://mysitehere.com. Sites that work like this are also able to be found without a prefix at all. You can type mysitehere and find it.

If you expect many people to contribute to the content of the website, incorporating a content management system (CMS) into the design of the website might be a good idea. A CMS will make it easier for everyone to add to and update the content without needing a high level of technical knowledge. These systems are easy to use, and can make publishing content on the website much more efficient.

Understand how your webpage will be read at a glance, rather than word for word. Most viewers won't spend their time gathering every piece of written content on a page; at least not until after they've scanned it. Words that are larger, bold, or emphasized should be the most important and placed sparingly to get your ideas across.

Do not add overwhelmingly large advertisements to your website. Too many ads can make visitors uncomfortable, which is exactly how you don't want them to feel. Choose content that does not take up too much space and distract people from the important information on your site, which will enhance it and make it look professional.

It is likely that you are going to run across interesting designs and techniques on other websites, but it is critical that you use your creativity when designing your own website. Come up with your own ideas and features or improve upon some that you admired on other sites. Taking this step is sure to help you maximize your efforts in website design.

As you've read, it doesn't matter what your skill set is in website design, you must study the basics. You can find the basics anywhere though, so at times is can be difficult to find exactly what you need. This article speaks for itself; it details several basic strategies that are an essential part of good web design.