Free Website and Graphic Design Tips

When designing your website be sure to include a header and a footer on each page. A header can include your logo along with your business name or website name, a slogan or tag line if you have one and any contact information your visitor’s may want immediately such as a phone number, email address or travel directions. You may also want to include a brief description (one or two lines) of what type of services you offer. Your navigation menu, whether horizontally or vertically positioned, should also be considered as part of your header and, as such, should be included on every page in your site. The footer can include your logo, usually on a smaller scale, a horizontal version of your navigational menu (links to each of your main pages as one or two lines across the bottom) and, most importantly, your contact information (in addition to the link to your “Contact Us” page).

Use this header and footer on every page. Doing so will create a sense of continuity and legitimacy for your potential clients. A visitor will never have to click more than once to contact you and they will be able to do it from any page within your site. This is a great way to make it easy for people to get in touch with you! With this in mind, be sure to include an “email us” link” in your footer. Have this link open up your visitor’s email client and have the subject line already filled in for them (i.e. “Website Contact”).

Practices such as these will make your visitor’s experience positive and will improve the overall appeal of your website. An effective web site design is simple yet informative. Great design and functionality go hand in hand. Function and design are codependent and integral to a successful website. If you’re starting from scratch, be sure to include these items in your website design. If you already have a website, it’s a good idea to review it and be sure that there are headers and footers on all your pages and that they contain all the information your visitors will need to have at their fingertips.

I firmly believe an image can “make or break” your web page design. Use photos that are clear, sharp and eye-catching. You want to evoke a feeling in your viewers. Motivate them to buy or browse further into your website. Images with electric lines running through them or other unrelated items aren’t going to get the results you want.
When taking a photo look carefully at what’s in your viewfinder and change your position to get the best image possible. Unrelated items in the background or forefront of your image are distracting and unprofessional. Crop out unwanted areas. Take note of how the available light is “falling” on your subject. Use your flash during daylight to fill in shady areas.
Make sure the object you want people to see is large enough to make an impact. If you’re selling surfboards you don’t want 80 percent of your photo to be the skyline and beach. Bring the surfboard up to the front of the picture! Zoom in on the surfboard either when taking the image or when cropping it for your website. You can keep some beach and sky but the board is the main focal point and should be sized accordingly. Visitors shouldn’t have to “try” to see portions of your photos.
Keep your main subject matter sharp, clear and up front. Reduce clutter and make the photo  large enough to compliment your layout and be easily seen. Take these few extra steps and your images will have more impact and your site will look a thousand percent more attractive and professional

All too often, when  I redesign websites for clients who have previously paid for a website, tried to do it themselves or have had their “nephew” do it, I find very few methods for visitors to contact the business behind the site.
Make it easy for your visitors to find what they’re looking for and then contact you with questions or orders. Put your contact methods on every page. At the very least include an “email us” option or a phone number or fax number on each page. Make it easy for people to access you and your products or services. If you have a storefront include a link people can use to get directions to your location and include your hours of operation.
Your navigation should be thorough and clear and it should be on every page.  If you link out to your blog make sure there is a link to get back to your main website or, as an alternative, have the blog open up in its own window (although you should still have a link to your website on your blog). If visitors can’t quickly find what they want or can’t easily get in touch with you they are very likely to leave your site immediately. I do.
When it comes to website navigation and user-friendliness remember to keep it simple and make it clear. Do all that you can to help your visitors get what they’re looking for.

Two major factors resulting in better search engine placement are relevent content and the correct use of keywords.

The importance of the relationship between keywords and content cannot be understated. Your keywords should appear in your content but please don’t “over do it”! Your site could be rejected by a search engine if you have too many keywords in a page’s content. Keep the percentage of keywords to between 5-10% of the page’s overall content. You should also keep the number of keywords in your code to somewhere around 20-25 words maximum. Too many keywords in the meta tag will dillute their value.
Content should be relevent and informative while including those all important keywords. Check you content and keep it current by updating it regularly. Finally, don’t forget to include a keyword or two in your page title and meta description section.

Here are a couple of hint to help you make your website even more “crawlable” by the search engines. Why? Because it’s the key to better search engine return ranking. You want people to find your site!
1. Spiders like html and lots of content related text. Keep the Flash but don’t go all Flash and use alt tags on your pictures. Make sure you have enough html and content related text to keep the spiders happy.
2. Include a sitemap in your website. Spiders love a good sitemap and ifyou’re not sure how to set it up, Google will give you all the help you need. Take a look at their Webmaster Tools.
3. Update you site. Putting up a website and never updating it is the wrong approach. The spiders want to crawl new stuff and your visitors want new reasons to return. Do yourself a favor and make the time to update your website.