Hiring a site design expert can be a pretty costly adventure for business owners. If you are just starting out with an online business, designing your website yourself can result in huge savings. Don’t cut corners while you are doing it. The tips below can help you get started with site design.

Be sure you have a search tool that lets others search when on your site. If visitors to your website are searching for something in particular, they will immediately look for the search box. If there isn’t one, visitors will probably leave your site rather quickly. Put the search box near the top right side of the page, since that tends to be common.

Your website should be able to be scanned without problems. Most website visitors do not really read online content. They just scan it looking for interesting tidbits of information. Using bolding, color changes and breaks between sections of text makes your content easier to scan and makes it more likely that visitors will return. On the upper area of each page, you should place your key information. This will satisfy your visitors and have them coming back for more.

When a user enters personal information into a form on your website, give the user the option to have the server retain that information should it be needed again. For instance, if someone filled in their name and address when creating an account, pre-populate this information when the customer fills out an order form. You streamline the process when you create “sticky” information, and your visitors will appreciate you not wasting their time.

Be sure your introductory page is clean and simple. Your front page can be the determining factor whether a visitor decides to stay or simply exits without seeing more. Blow the horn about your business and its unique qualities, but reduce the amount of extra fluff on your site.

Make use of keyword research. While your main focus should always be on providing your customer with relevant and current information, you first need to work on gaining a customer base. To ensure the success of a website, there must be a good understanding of the keywords that will attract visitors to the site through search engines.

When deciding on a background color for your website, white is a very effective and good choice. Using white helps visitors be able to read your website, and gives your site a more professional look. You will come across as an amateur if your site design is cluttered and distracting. It’s usually better to keep your background simple.

Optimize your website of old versions of the IE browser. Many people still use old IE versions. Workarounds are needed for many elements to be visible in IE. One tip of utter importance when dealing with the older Internet Explorer browsers is to educate yourself on the bug referred to as box model that haunted them for years.

The trek from amateur to website design expert is not a short path. You should expect to have several mishaps during your first web site build. New visitors can be yours when you set up the website properly.

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