What Not To Do In Web Design

It can be difficult to avoid all of the pitfalls that come with designing a website. With so many websites out there, it is important that you create a unique online presence that sets you apart from everyone else. There are quite a few things that you can do in order to come out on top and beat out the competition. The article below will focus on just some of the ways that you can improve your own website!

Choose a URL for your website that is easy to remember and has a good ring to it. Something that takes 30 seconds to type is a website that many people will tend to forget. Register your domain name with a name that is short, sweet and to the point. If you don't have a domain registered in your name, consider shortening your URL. Free hosts such as Angelfire often provide a URL that isn't easy to remember and can become hectic to type. A URL shortening website will take that URL and shorten it to sound like you have registered a domain name; the best part is that most of these services are free.

Avoid putting too much on your website! This means, keep scrolling messages and mind boggling animations to a minimum. Too many website owners feel that by placing animations on their website they are grabbing people's attention, when in fact they are driving them crazy instead. Animations can be hard on a person's eyes, but more to the point, they can freeze a browser window faster than lightning. If you have something important to say, you don't have to say it with scrolling text. Write your text in banner form or just use a bold and large font. People don't want to wait minutes for your text to come scrolling through.

It is important that your website and its pages load fairly quickly. It can be said that about 15 seconds is the most that it should take someone to completely load your website. If that is not the case, you really need to re-think your website's design and tweak it a bit. If you have too many graphics and JavaScript to display, it can freeze up older computers and won't load properly on dial-up Internet.

Always check your website's links and make sure that they are still valid and the pages display correctly. If you have a website that has many links, this is especially an important step. Visitors will find themselves very annoyed if they see that half of the links they click on are invalid. Take a day off once a week when you check to make sure that your links are working. If you don't have enough time on your hands to do this, consider hiring some outside help to check all of your links. You can also set up a form for visitors to fill out if they spot a link that is broken or re-directing someplace else.

It is important that when you take the time to design your website, you are designing a site that many people will want to visit over again. By taking the time to avoid unnecessary pitfalls, you will find your website's popularity increase significantly.