Designing a website isn’t always an easy task. Compared with your competitors, how can you create an appealing design? How do you implement code? The following article can help you answer these questions so you can make a creative site and get your product sold.
Make sure your text and background has the proper contrast. There’s evidence showing that white text on a black background is easiest for most people to read, but other colors are fine so long as they’re readable. Also keep in mind that people with visual impairments may not be able to read your site if the contrast is poor. Check to see if your site complies with various contrast standards using the tool at http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html .
Make sure your webpages aren’t too long. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if your most important content is “below the fold,” it may not even be read. If you have a lot of related content that needs to stay together, consider breaking it up into sections and adding links to each section.
Frames went out in the 90s, so do not rely on them. While they worked well for the time, they caused many issues for website visitors. Visitors may find it difficult to scroll or bookmark your design when a frame design is present. A number of better ways exist that make it easy for users to navigate your site.
Make sure that you use the right anchor text. The anchor text of a link should clearly describe what the visitor should expect to see when he clicks on the link. For instance, if a link leads to your widget ordering page, the anchor text might read “Order widgets.” Specifically avoid using “click here” as anchor text.
Frames are one feature to eliminate if you are attempting to optimize your site for search engines. Users generally like frames, but information within frames is not picked up by the search engines. If important site information isn’t seen by a search engine, then your ranking won’t be as high as it could be. When that happens, not many people will see your site.
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.
Look for, and remove, broken links regularly. All links should be double checked before you upload them. You want to avoid broken links, because they make your visitors especially frustrated by promising certain content and then failing to deliver it. Ensure everything works before making your website public.
Reading this article is a great start, so consider printing it out and going over it a few times to absorb it’s content. As you continue to learn more about site design, it will become easier to retain a competitive edge.
