The first thing people notice about a website is its overall design. Because you want to give a good first impression, you want to make sure your website is designed correctly so that people do not leave as soon as they hit your site. Use the following tips to help keep visitors coming back to your site.

Watch your color scheme on your site. Choose a font and color that will help your words stand out from the background. In general, a light background with darker text is much clearer than the reverse situation. When in doubt about the effectiveness of your color choices, solicit the opinions of friends.

Speed is everything when it comes to the Internet, so make sure that you keep your website’s loading time to a minimum. Your visitors are more likely to lose interest in your website and leave the page if they have to wait for a few minutes before having access to the content.

Search Box

Make sure that there is a site feature that will allow users to seek for specific content. If those visiting your site are looking for something specific, the first thing they will look for is a search box. When one is not available, chances are they will move to a site that is searchable. Make sure your search box is visible. The right hand side of the page, at the top, is the best location.

Always look for broken links prior to publishing pages on the web. Visitors can get frustrated when they click a link and come across an error page. You could check for broken links yourself, or get a program that scans and reports broken links for you.

Make it possible for users to cancel action if they want to do so. Whether filling out forms, signing up for email notices or even needing browsing options, users will find this useful. Visitors with second thoughts are not going to appreciate being locked into an action. They will feel that they are being forced to act against their wishes, and it will be unlikely that they will want to return to your site after such an experience.

Free design software is a valuable tool for quickly setting up a website. A lot of people think that they need to use costly software, but the truth is that there are a number of free, quality tools that can help you begin and keep your website running. Do some searching and you’ll find some excellent free tools to use.

The design of a website is a huge factor in helping people decide if they are going to stay and look at your website, or move on to something different. The first impression must be a great one. The tips and suggestions outlined above offer advice as to what you can do to design sites that will keep people there and keep them coming back often.