Design Your Web Site Like A Pro

With an economy in shambles and no jobs on the horizon, a lot of people today are turning to the internet in order to start up a home business. In order to have a flourishing business online, however, web design plays a large role. Read up on some great web design tips you can use to ensure that your business is successful.

Pay attention to the colors on your website to make sure they match. Be sure that your written content is clearly visible and easy to read against the background you choose. In general, you want to use a dark font color and a lighter background. Let some of your friends see your site and give you some advice before going live.

Include a search element that allows visitors to search within your website content. If those visiting your site are looking for something specific, the first thing they will look for is a search box. When you don"�t have one, they are more likely to move on to another site that does. Always place the box at the top right of the page, as this is the first place visitors tend to look for one.

Don't force users to install strange BHOs. Many tech-savvy users won't do it. Common offenders include unusual video players, image viewers, and platforms for interactive games. For most standard use cases, there is a trusted plugin, such as Windows Media Player or even Flash) that will do what you want without driving away users.

Don't disable the visitor's right-click functionality. Some sites do this in order to prevent people from copying and pasting text or saving images from the site. The thing is, it doesn't work and disables other useful functions. OCR can be used to capture text from such sites, and grabbing images is as simple as taking a screenshot.

Use ALT tags whenever possible. These helpful tags describe an image to a viewer, assisting the visually impaired, as well as those who prefer to browse without images. As an added bonus, some search engines include these tags in their rankings, so you may get a boost by using them.

Use a style sheet to stay consistent. There is almost nothing more disconcerting than being sent to a page that looks at nothing like the site you were just looking at, even if it is concerning the same subject. Style sheets help with saving your formatting, so each page looks similar to the rest.

If you want your site visitors to spend as much time as possible on your site, make text easy to read. One of the most common design mistakes is using graphic backgrounds with patterns or dark colors; combine this with equally dark text and you have a recipe for disaster. Unless the text is clear and easy to read, your site will not be a success.