Ditch Flash and use something else for multimedia. Flash can slow down visitors’ computers, and make them unlikely to want to stay on your site. In addition, some tablets and cell phones are not Flash-enabled, which can make it difficult for these types of visitors to enjoy your website.
This is a simple but often overlooked step in web design. Look over everything you have written prior to uploading the page onto the server to ensure that there are no problems with the text. You’ll find it extremely difficult to cultivate a professional reputation if your content is riddled with simple errors. Visitors will not trust your website and will move on.
Elicit feedback from your visitors. That way, if they are having a problem or there are missing items on your pages, you will be made aware and can fix the problem. Remember, when your visitors feel like they are involved with your website, they are more likely to make repeat visits.
Avoid free web hosting for your commercial website from the beginning to avoid future headaches and lost business. While the price is right, free web hosting is often accompanied by excessive advertisements on your page. Not only will this go against your beliefs, but it will also drive your visitors mad.
If you have questions about popular site design software like Photoshop or Dreamweaver, you may wish to speak with an experienced friend or coworker. You want to ensure that you remember everything you learned. It can slow you down quite a bit if you have to review what you’ve learned while building a website.
While development platforms can ease the coding process, many are not as efficient as a plain old text editor. The idea with these platforms is to design your site’s features, and then paste in their generated code. It makes things simple, but it can create some bulky, messy code. To make things more error-free, working the old fashioned way, via a text editor, is the smarter approach.
Keep your design consistent across your website. Being consistent in the design of your website lets visitors know they are still on your site. Consistency of graphic schemes is necessary to avoid this problem. Use the same fonts, colors, and styles in your company literature and brochures to maximize cohesiveness.
Many people do not like popup windows or links that pull up in a new tab. A large number of your visitors won’t even allow popup windows to load. Therefore, you should avoid these types of options when designing your site. If you are thinking about utilizing these techniques for navigational purposes, you should instead consider whether the overall navigation system you have in place for the website could use improvement.
Get help from a professional — a seasoned veteran of web design can help you get past a lot of rookie errors. Keep this up and you could become an expert one day.
When you are choosing a web host, make sure that you understand what the service package includes. Fundamental items that you need details of include bandwidth, CPU usage and disk space. Be certain you understand what you are purchasing.
Use basic fonts which every user will be able to see. People judge your sites professionalism by the fonts you use. Do not use Comic Sans, overly ornate fonts, or fonts that many computers might not have. A font could be subset to a default font in the computer of your user, if they do not have it. Sometimes this looks worse, but often times it helps the reader who otherwise may not have been able to read your website clearly.
Since many of the great domain names are already taken and in use by other companies, it might be in your interest to check out auction sites for used domain names like Sedo. There you’ll find many interesting domain names for sale.
Allow users to cancel an action if they so choose. Types of such actions would include registering an email, filling out forms, or browsing your site for archives or topics. If you don’t give visitors the opportunity to cancel their actions, you are depriving them of control, and that can prove fatal to your website.
By testing the way your website will work in different browsers, you can ensure that the maximum number of visitors see your site they way you want them to. If something works in Chrome it might not work in Firefox, for example. Check how each page displays in the major browsers before your site goes live.
Sign up for newsletters that can help you learn about web design techniques periodically. This will help both beginners and experts.
If you plan to design more than a single site, learn to work with several different platforms. For example, learn Java, ASP, PHP and MySQL so you are prepared for any client who approaches tou. Take the time to develop skills that can be applied across multiple platforms, regardless of whether your needs are personal or professional.
Attempt to give dedicated time on a regular basis to making your website improvements. Make a concentrated effort, instead of a hit-and-miss approach periodically. Putting in hard work on your websites not only improves them, it also refines and sharpens your design skills.
Your goal should be to offer a website that is not only easy to navigate, but also appealing to the eye. If this isn’t true, visitors will leave your site quickly. Focus on good content and keep everything else straightforward and simple, so that visitors can always find exactly what they need.
Make a good first impression by making your website inviting for regular visitors and casual browsers. You must deliver the best first impression possible. It is hoped that these tips have given you some of the tools you will need to be a success with web design and traffic retention.