Nowadays, web designers have many options in terms of technologies and tools they can utilize for building their web pages. However, many questions arise; should you use flash? Will you need a shopping cart? Should your web pages be data base driven? How many colors should you use on your site? What kinds of images are appropriate?

The following are general guidelines which will address some of the most fundamental issues/questions in web design.

Don’t use ‘heavy’ backgrounds

Heavy backgrounds will increase your page size and therefore make your page load much slower. In addition, such backgrounds will make text difficult to read and distract users from what is being presented. The aim of your website should not be to impress visitors with a fancy background tile. Make sure your text is easy to read.

Use italics and bold case sparingly

Italics and bold case are a great way of drawing attention to text. However, they also make the text harder to read. You should use italics and bold case only when necessary within your text. When they are used too frequently, they lose their impact.

Don’t use excess colors

People identify things through colors. Make sure that your website’s color scheme is limited to a few colors. The color scheme should be consistent in all your pages, unless you want to highlight a particular section.

Provide alternate text for your images

Alternate text is the text which is inserted in the image tags (<img…>) which is used by text-only browsers. Such browsers are use by blind people to browse the internet since they cant se the images. Instead of displaying images, text only browsers read the alternate text in the image tags.

The alternate tags should contain meaningful information which can benefit the blind. It should contain your main keywords, which will be helpful with the search engines.

Live credit card processing

If you are using your site for e-commerce, your sales will increase substantially with live credit card processing. At times, people who want to begin selling online avoid credit card processing services due to the amount of programming required. Research has shown that having credit card processing in e-commerce websites results in much higher conversions.

Use sharp and clear pictures

This is very vital. Just one clear image can make a web page look really good. On the other hand, just one bad image can make the most attractive web page look bad.

 

ZK is the co-founder of Web Marketing Blog where accomplished writers and bloggers share their tips, strategies and stories. Follow him on Twitter at @webtrafficroi