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DIY Guide To Web Design

Feel free to contact us with questions about these tips!

First and foremost, register a domain name [www.yourname.com] for your company! Domain names project a professional image, and provide an easy-to-remember web address that never changes. Domain names can be registered at Network Solutions, Dollar Domain Name, Register.Com, Go Daddy Software...or we can do it for you.

See Also:
Request a free web design quote
Learn more about our design process
View our client portfolio
What to look for in a web designer
Build your own web site
Host your own web site

1. Keep file sizes small
The total file size of each web page, including graphics, should be 75K or less. Pages over this limit will be slower to download, and some visitors will not wait. Try to put small images on your home page, with a link to a larger version of that image. Do not place a picture into your web page editor and then scale it down to fit (this wastes bandwidth and increases download time). Reduce the picture size in an image editor first - this will reduce the file size and laoding time dramatically. Also, reduce the number of colors in GIF files - perhaps the same image will look fine at 4 or 5 bits per pixel instead of 8. Finally, break up one text-heavy page into several smaller ones to speed download time and decrease the need to scroll down a page.

2. Develop a consistent navigation system
KISS: keep it simple, stupid...simplicity is the key. People want to know where they are, where they've been, and where they can go. Buttons and links should be used consistently throughout your site. Design your home page as a fast-loading information hub linked to specific subjects, not as a billboard for a big, slow-loading picture, your mission statement, or company history. Put that information on a secondary page.

3. Reuse images
Use the same image files, such as logos, buttons, and background images, on many pages. Once an image file is viewed by the web browser, it is "cached" and instantly available to the browser when other pages containing that image are viewed. This dramatically speeds up your web site.

4. Break up information
Information-heavy pages are slow to download and are difficult to navigate. Break the information down into specific topics, and place each topic on a separate page. This requires a good navigation system, but it gets your visitors where they want to go more quickly. Treat your home page as an information hub, designed to get your visitors to information quickly. Also, give each page a specific title based on it's contents. These strategies give you much better results in search engines.

5. Avoid clip art
A good looking web site is difficult to create with clip art, which does not project a professional image. Customized icons and buttons, created from scratch in a uniform color scheme, really set a web site apart. If all you have is clip art, at least customize it with colors from your logo.

6. Avoid plug-ins
If a visitor does not have the necessary plug-in to view a file at your site, chances are they won't bother going to get it. Often, there is a simpler solution. If you must use a file requiring a plug-in, stick to a popular format, such as Flash.

7. Use real text whenever possible
Scanning your newsletter and pasting it as a JPEG or GIF onto a web page makes the information very slow to download and, more importantly, completely invisible to search engines. If you copy the text from the newsletter file and paste it in as text on the web page, the document size will be reduced greatly, and the search engines will be able to index the information.

8. Use color and negative space
Strategic color usage adds contrast and emphasis to important elements. Keep the area around an important item empty and clean, to make it stand out. Use soft, low-contrast colors and textures for backgrounds so that overlying text is legible. Do not use flashing text, since it is annoying and hard to read. Do not underline text, since it appears to be hyperlinked.

9. Get their email address
A web site is an effective sales tool only if it generates quality leads. Provide a guestbook or other service asking visitors for their contact information. When asking for this information, assure the visitor that it will be kept private.

10. Design for both people and search engines
A short, specific title on each web page is a great way to get ranked well on the search engines. Also create META tags for every page. Design one "entry" page for each particular word or phrase through which you want your site to be found. Don't bother with services offering submission to 300 search engines for a fee. 70% of web surfers use Google.

Other Web Site Design Questions:

Where can I get web site hosting?

What should a web page consist of?
One page should be compared to what you can fit on an 8.5 by 11 sheet of printed paper. Long, tall web pages can be difficult for your visitors to navigate, and search engines "reward" pages that are dedicated to one specific topic...very long pages often contain too many different topics and therefore don't do well in search engines. Some customers want to cram ALL of their web site content onto just one or two web pages, and we discourage that because the search engines themselves discourage that. We spend most of our time on your site's "look and feel" (graphic design and navigation), and adding more pages later on is neither difficult nor expensive.

How many web pages should I set up?
How many services do you offer? At least one page should be dedicated to each of your services, and services with lots of options should be further broken down. This makes it easy to design your site's navigation, and it gets you much better search engine results because of the specificity of each page.