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15 Important Web Design Tips

Here are 15 important website design tips that you might not be
aware of or have overlooked. Consider taking advantage of them
if you haven’t already done so…

1. Custom 404 Pages

Create a custom 404 web page, so that any time your website
visitor mistypes or misspells a URL on your site, they will
still be provided with navigation options for your site
(instead of getting nothing but a “Page Not Found” error
message, which is neither friendly or helpful).

2. Redirect Non-www. To www.

Website visitors will often leave out the “www.” portion when
they type a URL or link to your website. Set the website up so
that it automatically redirects any non-www version of your
domain urls (http://domain. com) to the www version
(http://www.domain. com) of your website.

3. Properly Sized Graphics

Size and define all graphics and images on your web pages
properly and correctly. Web pages will load quicker if the
graphics contained on each page are properly defined so they
don’t require the web browser to re-size them. Properly sized
and defined images can reduce the web browser workload and speed
up the page loading time.

4. Favicon

Add a Favicon (favorite icon) to your website, so that your
company or product logo appears in the URL box. This icon will
also show up in a bookmark list, and gives the web site an added
level of professionalism.

5. Include RSS Auto-Discovery

If you offer an RSS feed for any content on your website, be
sure to include auto-discovery code in the header of your
website. This will allow many browsers and RSS readers to
automatically detect the presence of an RSS feed and alert the
visitor that it is available.

6. Alternate Domains

Domain names are relatively inexpensive, so you should register
multiple domain versions and extensions in order to protect your
brand. The varied domains can be parked on the main website,
simply to prevent others from obtaining them. Registering
alternate domain versions will help protect your brand.

7. Consistent Navigation

Navigation should remain consistent on a website. As a website
visitor moves through the website, the navigation bar should
remain in the same place on each page. This will make it easier
for visitors to navigate your website, and become more
comfortable as they move through your site.

8. Home Goes Home

The main graphic, company logo, or “header” at the top of the
site should be included on every page in the site, and should
always return the visitor to the home page of the website. This
has become a web standard, and most visitors now expect to
return to the main page of the site simply by clicking on the
main top graphic from any page within the site.

9. Copyright Notice

Include a copyright notice on the bottom of each page contained
on the website, and keep it current! It may seem trivial, but an
out-of-date copyright notice can send a message to your visitors
that the website and its content may be out-of-date as well.

10. Meaningful File Names

Use meaningful file names for any files, graphics, or web pages.
Many search engines look at file names as part of their search
algorithm, and using keywords in file names may help to improve
search engine rankings.

11. Hyphens vs Underscores

When naming files and webpages, use hyphens
(i.e. web-page.html) rather than underscores (i.e. web_page.html)
for the file names. It is much easier for search engines to
separate and index the keywords when hyphens are used.

12. Alt Tags

Use ALT tags to describe what images represent on web pages. ALT
tags not only assist visually-impaired visitors in knowing what
the images are, but they also help with search engine ranking.

13. Spell Check

Use a spell-check feature on the text of all web pages in a
website. A website that contains mistyped or misspelled words
just shouts “unprofessional”. Take the extra few minutes
necessary to check the spelling of text on each page of your
website.

14. Test

After making changes to a website, test it! Many times, a
webmaster will upload changes, confident in their abilities,
only to later discover that in their attempt to fix one thing,
they have “broken” something somewhere else. Make testing a
habit after making even the most minor changes!

15. Keep It Simple

Simple is good. Remove unnecessary clutter and distractions
from a website and navigation menu.