10 Fundamentals Tips Behind Creating An Awesome Website

• September 16th, 2010
• Articles

The number of new website explorers means website numbers grow by the day. With that competition avalanche, if you merely it, they may not come. Here are a few tips, hints, and secrets to building a successful, great-looking website.

1. Navigation is of the essence

A website should be easy to access. Even the cheapest web hosting will have sufficient bandwidth for a speedy experience, provided a visitor doesn’t have to spend an hour finding the links. Artistry is laudable, but navigation ease should be paramount. Indicate clearly which links to click. Instead of finding the link, a visitor may hit the back button. When a web designer sees a site through the eyes of a surfer, he spares himself angry emails and the loss of traffic.

2. Drop audio and huge images

Quality website design means tossing the annoying sound files and huge images. A designer has to consider all possible visitors. Some will be accessing the Web in the middle of the night. Some may be on a dial-up connection. A sound file and huge images aren’t conducive to a pleasant experience for those users. Sound files lose their charm quickly. If they ever had any charm at all.

3. Make sure it’s ready

There are only two kinds of websites, ones that are ready for visitors and those that can’t be accessed. If a website isn’t ready, a website isn’t ready. It also must have the appearance of being recently updated. Nothing is less likely to be revisited than an incomplete or stale website.

4. Readability is a must

After navigability, the next most important requirement is readability. The background and the text color are the two most important elements affecting readability. Colors in the site design also must not clash. Anything that makes a site difficult or painful to read may make it unlikely to be visited again. A website shouldn’t be boring, but it must be memorable for the right reasons.

5. Get quality hosting

Layout is nothing if the site doesn’t load quickly. Ask other netizens for their hosting recommendation. It’s also wise to pay attention to their negative experiences. With a small budget, it is best to seek out shared hosting from one of the better web hosting services. Shared hosting is somewhat limiting, but a small budget should not be an obstacle to good service in this age of affordable hosting.

6. What about out-of-the-box scripts?

What does your website hosting service offer in terms of out-of-the-box scripts? Once a basic website is up, will additional elements to the site require scripts, like scripts for a mailing list, a blog or shopping cart? Many hosting services offer one-click set-up scripts for websites. This is offered through a webmaster control panel, which is often free. From this script interface, a web designer can build forums, content management systems, blog scripts, and more.

7. Don’t forget about the security

How secure is the server? How likely is a site to be hacked? Unfortunately, just as one-click scripts have given greater ease and accessibility to sophisticated web design, they have also made websites more vulnerable to exploits found by hackers. Ask at website design forums about the security of web hosting services.

8. Optimize the site

A website design should also take search engine optimization into account. There are website design tweaks that can assist search engines in finding and crawling a website. Any quality web hosting services can direct a designer to the right information.

9. Know the basics

What skills will be required to run the website? With shared hosting, that primarily falls to the tech crew, however, there may be added costs for various other services. Knowing the basics of FTP set-up and learning one’s way around any webmaster control panel are usually wise things to do.

10. Get feedback

One last step is to find five newbie Web users and have them visit the designed site. They should be left alone to click their way around through all the links. Feedback from them will be invaluable. Were links clearly defined? Did they feel the site was balanced and coordinated? How did the color and graphics strike them? Were the scripts added a positive or negative thing? Would they bookmark the site? It’s usually good to have them write down their impressions, link by link. This should give even a neophyte web designer the final information he needs to get his website ready to launch.