TIP! Visitors will enjoy your website, if they can navigate it easily. Links should be easy to find and prominently displayed.

An online business must have a quality web page design to be successful. If you know how to design a website, you will be in front of your competitors. But not everyone is aware of what is necessary for an outstanding web design, which is why these tips are so helpful. Here are some important thing to know about web page design.

TIP! Include an easy way for visitors to search your site content. If visitors to your website are searching for something in particular, they will immediately look for the search box.

If you are designing a website, choose proper graphics. Keep in mind that bitmap files are quite large and typically do not work well, but PNGs work okay. Use a GIF instead if the image contains over 256 colors and PNG for test buttons and screen shots. For pictures, use JPEG images.

TIP! Your site should be able to be scanned easily. Various tests on usability demonstrate that most online readers do not actually read all the content; instead, they scan it for something that interests them.

Fixed navigation panels are a good way to allow your visitors to easily navigate your site. This means that when the visitor goes down your page, the navigation panel will be locked. This helps anyone who just stumbles across your site view it more seamlessly. It can also make it easier for them to do something you want them to do (like get on your email list).

TIP! Stay away from using pop-up ads. It’s annoying to visit a website and get ambushed with a lot of pop-up ads.

A good website should display and function in any type of web browser, so it is vital that you test your website in every browser currently on the market. While a certain element may look wonderful in Firefox, it may appear incorrectly on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Safari. Verify the way in which your pages load in all major browsers prior to your official launch.

TIP! Know everything you can about your subject. When posting to your website, make sure that you have done your research.

Use shortcuts. There are a million shortcuts you can make use of. Some HTML codes will let you make easy changes to your site at the snap of a finger, for instance.

TIP! To help new web designers make good sites, use Photoshop. Using a program like Photoshop can help amateur web designers create professional looking sites really fast.

Photoshop is a great tool that novice designers should invest in to help make better looking web designs. There are also programs that will allow you to design pages without knowing how to write HTML or other code. If Photoshop is not something you have access to, then being able to create a good site could take some time.

File Sizes

TIP! Never underestimate the value of great meta tags throughout your website. Your site can show various search engines exactly what your site is all about when you have meta tags.

Other than the aesthetics of your site design, one of the most important things to consider is keeping all your file sizes to a minimum. The reason for this is that your file sizes directly affect how quickly your website loads. You want your website to load very quickly when potential clients visit. There are still people who will be using your website that do not have a high-speed connection. Check your site, and make sure that it can load quickly even with a slow dial-up internet connection.

TIP! Be sure you’re testing your site early and it gets tested on an often basis. Check the usability and user interaction of your site as soon as possible while designing the site.

Your website should be optimized to include older versions of web browsers such as Internet Explorer. Many people detest Internet Explorer, but some still use these older versions today. These require the use of some workarounds. Familiarize yourself with the concept of the notorious “box model bug” which caused trouble for Internet Explorer for years.

TIP! Even if you invest a bunch into your site, hosting yourself isn’t wise. Design your website as much as you can by yourself, but have someone else host it, so that you do not have to worry about its security and safety.

Visitors enjoy knowing more about the webmasters of their favorite sites. Many websites that you see will have boring pages for this area. Get your visitors engaged! Give visitors insight into you, the designer. Help them understand how you began designing websites, which other designers you consider to be mentors, and where you are going from here.

TIP! When you know about web design, get down to practicing what you know. This will ensure that you are using the information you learn.

As you now know, your internet business can sink or swim with the website development. You can stand head and shoulders above the crowd if your web page design is right. Despite that, you must learn some things before designing online. Implementing the tips above can help you properly design a site.