Web Design Do’s and Don’ts
Regardless of when you purchased your website hosting, you will need to build a site on it. There are a lot of great ways to pursue building a website. You can use a template, or you could learn to code. You could even hire someone to build your website. Whatever the case may be, you will find that you can pursue a variety of options to help build a good page.
But what should your site have? What are the essential functions that your website should have? Have you considered that yet? If you haven’t, then you should focus on the following tips and tricks. These are ideas that will help you build the right website, not just another page that gets ignored online.
Your Website Should Appear Professional
The very first rule of any website you publish is simple, make it look like it’s professional. If you use a template, or if you design it from the ground up, make sure it doesn’t look amateur. If you are not sure how to build a site, don’t panic. Hire someone to help you.
Don’t know what a professional website looks like? That’s ok. Look for templates, and go to some of your favorite websites. The more you look at sites, the better the ideas are going to be in regard to what you want to publish for your own web pages.
Have A Content Management System
What is a content management system? It is an element that lets you update your website fast. The most common of these include Drupal, blogger, and WordPress. There are others as well, but these are common solutions that you can integrate into your website to allow for easy, up to the minute updates.
Your website needs to have content. You do not want to edit HTML pages one by one, which is why content management systems help so much. In many instances, you can install this and a theme that makes your entire website look professional. WordPress, for instance, lets you have professional themes that are ready to publish content on, out of the box.
Function Within SEO (search engine optimization)
Your website has to function within the parameters of modern SEO. You should not work on any page that doesn’t comply with the main elements found within basic SEO structures. If you do not know how to do this, you may need a strong content management system to do some of the work. WordPress, for example, can help you with this.
Using Google Search Console is a great start. It’s a free way for you to submit your website and sitemap to Google’s search engine.
If your page does not function with simplified SEO protocol, your pages will not rank within search engines. Without this, you will not get traffic, and that’s a big deal to consider. Neglecting this tip will cause your page to sink in rankings.
Avoid Sounds and Videos That Play Automatically
Unless you’re building a web portal that is specifically catering to sports or news, do not have sounds and videos automatically playing. If someone lands on your website and there are sounds and videos auto-playing, they will not come back. Even if you see a website do this, you should not.
There is no reason why your website should have this. There are so many few sites that do this correctly, that you should definitely avoid it at all costs. Of course, you may ignore this, but you will be doing it at your own peril. People hate this.
Have Outbound Informational Links
No matter what industry you’re in, have outbound links. Point to informational pages like Wikipedia and others. Whatever is a strong source for your industry and niche, point to the pages that matter. If you do this, you will ensure that you are ranked higher in search engines.
It can be frustrating to have great website content and no visitors. To offset that, you need links that go outbound, and links that go inbound. Start with referencing high authority pages. That will help you get moving forward to start.
Use Stock or Your Own Photographs
Do not use Google image search for photographs to post on your page. Take your own photographs, edit them, and then post them. If you do not have access to good photographs for your website, don’t worry. Invest in free stock images. Stock photographs are found online and can help you garner a great deal of visual design.
Your website has to look great, and be intuitive. The above elements are just some of the most common things to work with. Start with the elements above, and you’ll have a good working web page.
