Websites have several purposes these days. You can get information from a website or simply share personal anecdotes. Whatever the purpose of a site, it ought to be designed properly. So here are some tips on web design to get you started.

Put a tagline on your site. This tagline includes a company motto or statement that tells the reader a little bit about the business. Having a tagline is important; most users know if they will stay on a page after about eight seconds, so you need to do whatever it takes to keep their attention.

Continue to learn about web design. An Internet search on your computer will give you access to a lot of info.

Keep page sizes down. Not everyone online has a fast connection, and if your website takes too long to load, people will lose interest. You don’t need visitors having pages get stuck every time they load because they may just leave your site and not return.

Remember the background. There are certain websites that utilize animated GIFs for their backgrounds. While such backgrounds can be attractive in some cases, they can also make it difficult to read the content on your website. Choose a background that goes with your site, instead of one that goes against it, so the viewers will be able to understand what you wish to convey.

There is a plethora of programs available to assist you with design. Many of these programs are easy to use and you can build a great website rather quickly. If your website looks sloppy and unappealing, there will be many visitors who don’t bother coming back.

No matter who your target audience is or what your site is intended for, you should always aim to keep loading time to ten seconds or less. A good site will appear before a visitor’s eyes within moments. Many people browsing the web want instant gratification, so if you want to catch their attention, you need to provide that.

Keep frames off your page. Although some users like frames, information inside the frame will not show up when searched. If your important content isn’t visible by search engines, you won’t achieve a high ranking. When that occurs you do not get many visitors.

Alt Tags

Use ALT tags for your website. These tags are used to describe the images they accompany in case the image is not displayed, such as when a user disables graphics or is visually impaired and uses transcription software to translate images and read them aloud. If images are links, your ALT tags can help you describe the link’s behavior, too. Finally, search engine crawlers like ALT tags as they are useful. So, your search rank might improve as a result.

Don’t accidentally place links on your site that lead to nowhere. This content tells the visitor what the link is. If you have hidden links, users may mistakenly navigate away from the page they were on.

Conditional loading and independent CSS pages are important when you design your website. These techniques will make it easier to test and maintain your site. Every website occasionally needs maintenance, so you want to minimize the time you spend here.

Design Tools

Using a host’s design tools to build your website is a good idea for the basic layout, but you don’t want to rely on the design tools completely. Going beyond templates means you’ll have a website that stands out, offers your visitors content they’ll come back for and gives you greater profits.

Invest in some books on the topic of web design. Be sure to start out reading books that are at your current level. You want to learn more, though you do not want to skip important information as you are learning, so that you miss something that can help you become amazing at web designing.

Photoshop is a well-known editing program that is important to learn about in order to have successful website designs. Fewer people are familiar with the program Dreamweaver, which can be just as useful.

A basic layout is best for your website, this way you can get a handle on the basics of web design initially. Beginning with a no-frills site allows you to constantly innovate and change things as you learn new techniques.

Target Audience

Take a poll of your target audience before you begin designing your website, so you know what they would be interested in seeing on your site. This helps you gear your website to what your target audience really wants. Any advice from the audience is important for your website.

Try speaking with a professional web designer in order to learn some great tips and ask any questions you have. They already know the right and wrong way to do things and can quickly help you get on the right track. You have the potential for mastering web design in no time at all, when you employ proven techniques.

Ask someone to try out your website throughout the designing process. Have someone test each new feature that you add. You might not think much of a video that loads slow, but another set of eyes can give a differing perspective. Always be sure you’re seeking outside opinions.

Try to avoid using Flash elements on your website. Flash can slow down visitors’ computers, and make them unlikely to want to stay on your site. Also, phones, IPads and other handheld devices may not be able to view Flash applications. This could make your site less enjoyable for these users to view, and they might decide not to bother with it.

Ask for feedback from others on web designs you create. Others may be able to point out flaws or challenging navigation on your site. If you can, try getting some of your target audience to test the site out to provide feedback about what they don’t like and like.

In conclusion, there are many purposes of a website, from entertainment to information. It’s important that if you are designing your own site you know what you are doing. Apply the tips here, and you can design a website for any purpose you want.