Web design uses all the same elements as print design. You need to explore the space and layout, handle fonts and colors, and put it all together in a format that gets your message across. Web design can be deceptively difficult, as it involves achieving a design that is both user friendly and pleasing, delivers information and builds brand, is technically sound and visually coherent.

When creating a site, the web designer has to keep the following things in mind:

The various browsers

The various versions of the browser

The operating system used by the visitor

The color depth of the visitor monitor

The screen display area

Keep in mind that your web site has to be designed for its audience - your prospects and customers! Good web designers look at their web site through the eyes of the prospect. For example, if you run a nursing home website for the elderly, you should make the layout easy, the font size large and the design simple. It is of utmost importance to understand the demographics of the visitors and the technologies they use.

Simple Web Design Quidelines:

Make your site usable by everyone if possible. Don’t unnecessarily do things that limit the number of people that can benefit from your site.

Make your site as fast as possible. This not only makes your site more enjoyable to use, but also allows those with expensive and/or slow Internet connections to use your site.

Make your site easy to use. Make it uncluttered, easy to navigate and easy to read.

Make your site useful. Create a site that fills a need. The main aim should be to provide “content”.

Maintain Integrity. Be Professional.Be truthfull & honest. Offer what you claim to offer. Check your spelling. Validate your code.

Make your site user friendly friendly and fun. Make your site as attractive and fun as you can without making it slow. Make it easy for the visitor to find what he is looking for.

If the site is not usable, then everything else is irrelevant. What is usable, varies from visitor to visitor. Remember that more people will find your site usable if you use fewer “bell and whistles.” However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using special plugins, Flash, Java or JavaScript, since your page will still be usable by those with the plugins installed and everything enabled, though sometimes it is better to compromise and create a page that reaches a wider audience.

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GOOD WEB DESIGN EXAMPLES

Small business SEO is a simple and effective way to get your webpage noticed. SEO, or search engine optimization, is used to improve your ranking on the search engines. With just a little research, and perhaps some professional help, you can see your traffic increase, your sales rise, and your rank move up.

When you want to promote your business, one of the most important things that you can do is to research the keywords that you want to use. Small business SEO is generally targeted for a local audience, so make sure that one or two of your keywords contain the name of your city and state if you are looking for local customers. You will definitely want to use a keyword tracker tool no matter which audience you want to reach.

There are several excellent keyword tracker tools that are free to use for your small business SEO. In addition to these tools, you will also want to do some searches of your own to find out which competitive websites have been successful in reaching the first page of the search, and take the time to check out their pages. You can find out a lot by seeing which small business SEO tips the others sites have used to help boost their page rankings.

Lastly, be creative while offering useful information to potential customers. Search engines favor websites that aren’t too stuffed with keywords, and that contain legitimate articles and information. If you are submitting your SEO articles to an article directory, then the same rules apply.

You can choose to do your own SEO work, but it does take some time and effort. Some small businesses prefer to hire an SEO professional, who already knows how to use the available tools for the best results.