Website Design Tips: Dos and Don'ts

You probably realise that there are a lot of really neat things you can do on your web page that will make it stand out, but did you know that the overuse of these things will not only make it stand out, they will aggravate your viewers so much that they may never come back. 

Browser Problems

Not everyone uses the latest versions of their browsers so not everyone will be able to see everything you do if you use scripts or other things that are not supported by older browsers. Test your Web pages on different browsers to make sure they work. 

Frames

Frames look great and they offer a certain amount of ease for the designer but they are not good for search engines and they don't offer your reader the options of bookmarking individual pages. 

Colours

Stick with standard colours. If you use bright colours people may not want to look at your page. Most Internet pages use the same colours for their links and read links. If you use something very different you may end up confusing your viewers. Also use as much white space as you can

Blinking

Don't blink. With HTML you can make things blink but if you use this feature too much it will just be annoying. Along with the things you should not do I would also like to let you know a few things that you should absolutely do. 

Load Time

Keep your load time down. Don't put big graphics, or a lot of graphics on your page. If your site takes longer than 10 seconds to load then it is too big and people may not stick around to wait for the whole thing and will move on to someone else's site. 

Keep Current

Keep your information and links up to date. People will not return again and again to a site who's information is old and who's links are broken. Continually check your links and add new things for people to see. 

Site Map

Keep your viewers from becoming confused by putting up a Site Map on your site. This will help them to figure out where things are and how to get there. By doing this they will know what's on your site and may even want to visit all your pages just to see what they are. Then they will come back for more. 

Search Engines

One of the the most important things you can do to get people to come to your site in the first place, and to help them find their way back, is to continually sign up with and update your listings with search engines. To get you started go to my list of search engines to go to their sign up pages and get your site listed.