Is CSS Important In Web Design?
One of the best developments in web design over the years is the technology called CSS. CSS stands for cascading style sheet. With a CSS file you can make updates to your websites in minutes, updates that used to take hours prior to the development of style sheets.
CSS allows you to make changes to your website across an entire section or your entire site. Rather than go page by page to make changes that affect each page of your website, with CSS you can change the element one time and it changes across your entire website. Isn’t that cool?
There are still some web developers who design pages entirely by HTML using tables. This is a very primitive way to design websites, but it can be done. However, I’d recommend using CSS when practical and possible.
With CSS you can influence the following types of changes sitewide with a single update:
- Navigation menus
- Page background colors
- Font styles and types
- Link attributes
- Page layout
- Column width
- Header and footer details
- Mouseover and hover effects
- Special effects like drop shadows and rounded corners
There’s plenty more you can do with CSS. In fact, you can get quite creative with it. If you are designing web pages today then you must consider CSS in your design strategy. Pages built strictly with HTML are quickly going by the wayside.
The Importance Of Opt-In Placement
Simply placing your opt-in box on your website and hoping you get sign ups isn’t a very effective plan. Lots of website owners have found out the hard way. Instead, why not take the time to learn the optimal place for your opt-in box so that you can increase your subscribers and increase your revenue?
Is there an optimal place?
To be sure, it is relative, but that doesn’t mean inconsequential. There have been eye studies that show where most website visitors view a web page and where the human eye is more likely to go. In essence, the two hottest spots on any web page are on the top left and on the bottom right.
So does that mean that is where you should place your opt-in box? Not necessarily.
The general rule of thumb is to put your most important content in the hot spots and fill everything else around them. You want your web pages to “breathe”. That is, you don’t want them cluttered. So make sure there is some white space.
However, you want to make maximum use of the space that you do have. And that means putting your most important content items in the hot spots and placing other items around them ensuring that your overall design is attractive, uncluttered and puts your visitors’ eyes right where you want them most.
Web design is about more than just making your site pretty. It’s also about making it functional – and profitable.
Content Or Web Design? Which Is More Important?
When it comes to online marketing and web design there are certain things that every marketer considers to be absolutely true, then there are certain things that are debatable. One of the things that often comes up for debate is the relationship between design and content. Which do you favor?
Before you answer, consider some of these points:
- An ugly website can still make money
- If you do not capture your visitor’s attention in 3 seconds then they will go elswhere
- No one buys anything online until they read something that makes them click the Buy button
- Pictures tell a thousand words
- You don’t need a thousand words to sell
- All other things being equal, people will spend more time on a pretty website than on an ugly one
Some of these statements may seem contradictory, but each step on its own is worth a goldmine of wisdom. But what do you make of “an ugly website can still make money” and “people will spend more time on a pretty website than an ugly one?”
Can both be true?
Yes, actually, they can. You need to keep in mind that content is what sells, not design. However, a beautiful web design can enhance a user’s experience. If your site visitors are turned off by the design of your website then they may not stick around to read the content. But if they do read the content and it doesn’t sell them on your products or services then your design won’t either.
Bottom line, web design and content go hand in hand. Make them work together.
Why Web Design Is A Top Priority
I’ve seen small business owners try to do online marketing with nothing more than a MySpace page or Facebook account. It’s good to have those things and you can probably make money with them, but you’d be better off with a website. I can promise you that.
Sure, your Blogger blog is cool and you probably get some readers, maybe even some business, but your well-designed website would likely get you more.
I firmly believe that a small business website, well designed with well-written content that is optimized for the search engines is the best Internet marketing tool you have. It costs a little bit of money to get one, of course, but it’s a great investment. Think of it this way:
- Nowhere on earth can you start a business for less than $1,000 and have it profitable in just a few months or, in some cases, a few weeks.
- You can still use your Blogger blog, Facebook account or MySpace page to promote your website. Tap into the traffic you’re already getting and drive it to your website where you’ll close the sale.
- Your website is a one-time investment. After the initial outlay, your ongoing costs are minimal – $10/year for a domain name and less than $10 per month for hosting. What kind of business can you run off line for that?
Web design is a small investment compared to the income you can earn from a website. Don’t look at it as a cost you can’t earn back; think of it as an investment that pays off.
Yes, Web Design Can Make Your Website More Profitable
There’s an old saying in Web development circles:
An ugly website that makes money is more attractive than a pretty website that doesn’t.
A web developer friend of mine has a knack for saying:
An ugly website that makes money gets prettier by the dollar.
These are both true statements, but let me add a third one:
A pretty website that makes money is more attractive than an ugly website that makes the same amount of money.
Bottom line, you’re in the business of making money. Anything you can do to be more profitable is a good business decision. And you’d better expect that your website visitors are judging your business by their first impressions of your website. Some people will just not buy anything from a business with an ugly website.
If you ensure that your web design is attractive without sacrificing functionality and practical usefulness then you’ll increase your website’s value to your visitors. There’s no need to settle for ugly.
Why Web Design IS E-Commerce
A few years ago it was common to hear someone say something like, “An ugly website gets prettier by the dollar” or “A ugly website that makes money is more valuable than a pretty website that doesn’t.”
While these anecdotes are pithy (and, we admit, true), we also can’t help but quip in return, “I’d rather have a pretty website that makes me money than an ugly one that makes me the same amount of money.” Wouldn’t you?
All things being equal, I’d rather have a pretty website than an ugly one. And that’s why I can say with confidence that web design IS e-commerce. There’s no sense pretending you have a choice. It’s not like you have to choose between a pretty website or one that makes money. You can have a pretty website that makes money. In fact, if your website is attractive then you stand a better chance today of turning it into cash.
Google would rather send searchers to a pretty website that is relevant to their needs than an ugly one that isn’t. Visitors to your site today will leave if they show up and are offended by your colors or the odd shape of your background. So attractiveness does count.
Instead of defending old Web 1.0 websites that did well because they were ugly enough to stand out, take some time to examine what it takes to make money online today. One part of the equation is web design and website attractiveness. Don’t discount it. Your visitors won’t.
Is Web Design Different From Web Development?
Is there a difference between web design and web development? Actually, there is. But sadly, most small business owners don’t really know what it is.
Web Design is about one thing – making your website appealing and attractive to your target market.
Web Development, on the other hand, is about making your website functional and helping your visitors find more easily the information they are looking for. There are a variety of strategies for accomplishing that task.
While web design is concerned about elements such as logo design, sidebar widths, header and footer appearance and photo/video presentations, web development is more concerned with elements such as navigation menu protocols, conversion funnels and usability studies. Of course, copywriting and SEO are also very important.
I won’t say that one is more important than the other, but it does help to know the difference. Your web development team should include a good web designer. But it shouldn’t consist only of a web designer. At any rate, if you are setting up a website that you hope will make you money then you should think about web design within the framework of your web development strategy – not the other way around.
What Are APIs Good For?
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It’s a developer tool that allows website developers to make websites that interact with other sites in special ways. Many of the top websites online allow website developers to use APIs to give their websites special characteristics and features. Some of the sites that use APIs are:
- Yahoo
- Bing
- Digg
- Delicious
- eBay
- Feedburner
- Flickr
- YouTube
And that’s a small list. There are thousands of other websites online that offer APIs to developers for use on their websites.
There are two ways that you can use an API for your website design and development. The first way is to take an API from a company with features that you’d like to add to your website and incorporate those features into your site using the API. For instance, you can take the Twitter API and create a feature on your site to allow content to automatically post on Twitter when you create it, or to allow your site visitors to comment on your site and automatically post their comments to Twitter.
Another way to use APIs is to create one for your site so that others who want to add unique features of the site you designed can incorporate those into their sites. This benefits you because other website owners will be sending you traffic from their websites.
When it comes to web design, you are no longer relegated to a simple HTML site with no interactivity. APIs can make your site more Web 2.0 and interactive.
Why Facebook Could Become Important For Web Design
The Web is atwitter today with talk of Facebook’s potential network and its Like feature. The focus is on Facebook’s privacy settings. By allowing publishers Web-wide to mine data about Facebook users through a Like button on their site, Facebook could use that information to target advertising on its own website. But that Like button could be more important than anyone realizes. It can be important for web design.
Issues that web designers will have to consider when building their website will include:
- Whether or not Facebook’s Like button is necessary.
- Where on each page of the site the Like button should be displayed.
It’s a no-brainer, of course. If Facebook is the most trafficked website on the Web then most webmasters are going to consider putting the Like button on their site, but is that going to be a good idea? You might find that consumers will not Like your content if they think that it will reveal something about themselves that they don’t want potential employers, college admissions counselors or someone else knowing. That Like button could then be a pariah.
It will be interesting to see how the Facebook privacy controversy plays out. It will be more interesting to see how it affects web design.
How HTML 5 Will Make Video Design Elements More Accessible
It’s been awhile since HTML has had a major update. It’s about due for one and in fact there is one currently in production – HTML 5.
HTML 5 will certainly be a revolution in website design elements. One area where HTML 5 will make necessary and revolutionary changes for webmasters and web users alike is in how browsers see videos. Currently, anyone who watches videos online must first download a browser plugin. At least one of them, and in many cases web users have more than one.
Popular browser video plugins include:
- Adobe Flash
- Apple Quicktime
- Shockwave
- RealPlayer
- VLC for Mac OS
- Windows Media Player
Chances are, if you watch videos online right now then you have one or more of these browser plugins installed in your Web browser. If you don’t have at least one of these then are not able to watch videos. HTML 5, however, will make these plugins obsolete.
HTML 5 Means Increased Web Security
Many Internet users are concerned about security. They don’t want to download anything they are not sure about. Therefore, they are a bit skeptical of the whole video browser plugin thing. With HTML 5 they won’t need to be. They’ll be able to watch videos without a plugin. And there browsing experience will be more secure as a result.
These security concerns are not without warrant. Many a website user has landed on a website and been asked to download a Codec for a video then been hit with malware issues that completely destroys their trust in websites that use video. While there is no such thing as complete Web security, HTML 5′s video tag will mean no Codec downloads are necessary and therefore any requests for such downloads can be immediately ignored. Videos will automatically play in any browser without a Codec or browser plugin.
HTML 5 Will Provide More Design Control For Webmasters
If you use video on your websites now then you are stuck with current sizing and embedding conventions. Customization is out of reach for most website designers. HTML 5 will change that.
With HTML 5 you’ll be able to control height and width of your video frames, autoplay on or off, design of your video frame and even search engine optimization with file naming conventions and src attributes. You can host your videos on your own server rather than upload them to YouTube and embed them on your site.
Another great HTML 5 attribute is the poster attribute. You’ll be able to designate an image placeholder to display while your video loads. That placeholder can be a branding logo, an ad or a cartoon. It’s entirely up to you. Again, more design control.
When Will HTML 5 Be Available?
A release date for HTML 5 has not be published. But production has been going on for a couple of years now so I’m guessing it’s getting close. I would not be surprised if HTML 5 was unleashed by the end of 2010. It would be a welcome change to the current state of video optimization and website design.
Will HTML5 Improve Web Design?
Members of the W3C are muddling their way through an update to HTML, the principle language of the Web. The new version, HTML5, is said to be an improvement over HTML4, the current version of HTML. But is it?
Some of the code elements that are being tested as we speak include:
- <header>
- <footer>
- <audio>
- <video>
- <article>
- <embed>
- <nav>
- <section>
The above HTML tags are currently not included in HTML4. I will say this much. These tags will certainly streamline the code in HTML and make some parts of web design much easier. The big issue will be in the implementation of the new version of hypertext markup language and whether or not HTML4 will still be acceptable to modern browsers.
My guess is that HTML4 will still be acceptable and readable, but I do see a point afar off in the future where HTML4 will be phased out completely and replaced entirely by HTML5. Of course, HTML6 could be in development by then.
What do you think. Will HTML5 make web design easier?
Incorporating Video Into Your Web Design
One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is whether or not to incorporate video into your web design. If you do then you’ll need to think carefully about placement of your video. Will you have one on every page of your website or just the home page? And where exactly on the page will you put your video?
To make that decision you’ll need to think about eye tracking studies. The famous graph of Google’s eye tracking study shows that most visitors to a web site will have eyes on the top left corner of your web page. In fact, the eyes scan from left to right and top to bottom in a Z pattern. That should make it easy, right?
No. Not really. What’s the purpose of your video? Furthermore, what’s the purpose of the page on which your video is presented?
These are two very important questions. Some people use the video as a sales tool to get people to opt in to their list or become customers. In that case, a paragraph of text followed by your video on center page might do the trick. But I’ve also seen videos – informational videos primarily – on the right top side of the page next to the main content column. And I’ve seen on the top left of the page as well.
The key to video placement on the page is to think about your visitor. Will the video be the most important element on the page? If so then premium placement should be the order. If something else is more important then place the video where it will enhance the page but not be center of attention.
Video marketing has arrived and webmasters who decide to use video on their web pages will need to experiment to come up with the best placement.
Why Web Design Is Important
Web design is an important part of doing business online. In the old days, if you had a website it was enough. People were not expecting attractiveness. But today, an ugly website won’t do. Your website needs to have a pretty face.
Your first impression as a business will often be your website. If it looks cluttered and unorganized then people will have that impression of your business and you will lose sales. It is vitally important to focus your web design efforts on three key areas of first impression:
- Attractiveness of design
- Search engine optimization
- User functionality
If you ask which of these is more important, the answer is none of them. They are all equally important. Your web design should be attractiveness enough to keep people interested long enough to read the content. The content needs to search engine optimized so that it attracts the right people through search engine marketing channels. And it needs to be functional and easy to use for your visitors. Miss the mark on any of these and you’ll lose sales. But it all starts with a pretty web design.
Online Marketing Begins With A Well Designed Website
If you own a business and you are thinking about doing some Internet marketing then I certainly wish you all the best. But you should give some serious thought about the implementation of your online marketing plans. Don’t just jump in and hope for the best.
Many companies go online and immediately start marketing through Facebook and similar websites without a website of their own. That’s OK, but where are you sending people to for more information about your company if they want to know? Without a website you’ll find it difficult to really connect with people long term.
Your Internet marketing plans should center around your home, or hub. That’s your website. Everything else you do online should go to support your web design and the content on your website. Start there and move out in concentric circles to other avenues of Internet marketing. You’ll be much more effective.
How Web Design And Content Are Connected
One of the oldest adages concerning Internet marketing is “Content is King.” The adage simply means that content is the most important aspect of your website because without content you really have no website. But that doesn’t mean that web design isn’t important.
Perhaps one of the things that many webmasters don’t think about is what your web design is actually for. You should consider your web design template as a shell for your content. If it were nuts, the web design would be the shell and the content would be the nut.
So what is the web design for, exactly?
Well, your web design is the face of your website. Having an attractive web design is much more important today than it was in the past. Ten years ago you could have an ugly site and get away with it. Not so much today. That doesn’t mitigate the importance of content, but you should consider that your site’s web design will either drive visitors away or attract them to the content. And there’s the rub. If your web design doesn’t point visitors to the content then it’s failing you. Pretty or not.
Are W3C Standards Necessary?
You’ll hear website designers often refer to W3C standards. But what does that mean, exactly? What is W3C and is it necessary?
W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium. It is an organization committed to establishing consistent standards for web design and other technical aspects of the Web in order to ensure that everyone anywhere can access the Web and participate in its powerful communication qualities. Their goal is worthy and honorable.
However, building a website that is not compliant with W3C standards will not result in any penalties or degradation in search engine rankings. You do not have to build a site that is W3C compliant in order to be successful, earn you money or grow in popularity.
That said, there are several reasons why you might want to build your website to be compliant with W3C standards.
- If your site validates with W3C then it will be seen as more credible in the eyes of many Internet users.
- By validating your site with W3C you show that you are sensitive to the needs of handicapped Web users.
- You can often find egregious errors in your code through the W3C validation process.
- If you are converting your website from one rendering technology to another (for instance, from HTML to XML or from Web browser technology to mobile browser) then W3C can assist in that process.
The most important thing to understand about W3C is that it will not give you any advantage in the search engines to have your site validated. Non-validated sites can outrank you for your keywords. They can outperform you in PPC. They could get a higher PageRank or receive other benefits that your site does not. But it wouldn’t hurt you to learn more about the standards that make the Web a better place.
Web Design With A CMS
Should you design your website with a content management system (CMS)? There are some definite advantages to doing so.
Some people don’t like CMS applications because the perception is that they aren’t very good at SEO. But that’s not really true any more. Joomla has come a long way in its implementation and WordPress has always been good at SEO. It hasn’t always been a great CMS tool, but lately it has expanded into quite a web design alternative.
One of the primary benefits to using a CMS is that you don’t have to hard code every web page. The CMS does a lot of the code work for you. But you also have tools to help you develop your website when you work with a CMS. WordPress calls them templates and plugins. Joomla calls them templates and modules. They do the same thing.
The key to CMS web design is to pick a template that you like and alter it for your own use. Then take the modules that do the things you need for your website and install them. Then it’s a matter of marketing.
Should you use a CMS for web design? You don’t have to, but it’s one option.
Social Apps To Add To Your Web Design
Now that the Web has migrated into a fully social platform, modern web design necessitates that webmasters include some social aspect into their websites. Invite people to participate in what you are doing at your website and to become a part of the content production process. There are a number of ways you can do this. Here are some ideas:
- Start a blog – This is the most basic social media application and if you want to make your website more social, this is a good place to start.
- Create a forum – Forums are old school, but they are still valuable places to connect. They are difficult to manage, however. Nevertheless, if you can get people to participate, a forum is a good social tool.
- Open a chat room – This is another throwback to the earlier Web days, but a chat room is a good addition to any website.
- Google Friend Connect – Google’s own do-it-yourself social platform. It has its weaknesses, but it’s strength is ubiquity. This is social web on the go.
- Facebook Connect – Where Google Friend Connect is social across multiple websites in unrelated niches, Facebook Connect is proprietary and makes your website an extension of your Facebook experience. This is truly a social app you should not ignore.
- Twitter Widget – Share with your site visitors what you are talking about on Twitter.
- Amazon Wish List – Amazon actually has several widget you can incorporate into your website. The Net’s largest book store can be a part of your website.
- Any Ol’ API - Take any social app with an API and add it to your site. You’ll need some development experience or a developer at your disposal. Turn your site into what you want it to be – a social center of its own.
Today’s web design incorporates elements of the social web. If your website isn’t social then you’re behind the times.
Web Design: Deceptively Easy
Web design is deceptively simple. You’d think that all you have to do is design something pretty and people will flock to it and click the buy now button. But it isn’t really that simple. There is a lot to think about when designing a website for any business.
No. 1, design issues are just one concern. Not the only concern. Web designers and business owners also need to think about the following concerns:
- Search engine optimization
- Social media marketing
- Paid advertising models
- Driving traffic
- Navigability
- Metrics
- User perception
- Cost of development
Web design is a whole marketing plan, not just a one-time event. You can’t just throw up a web page and forget about it, hoping the world will come to see it. Just as important as design attractiveness are visitor ease of use, search engine optimization, and page-to-page navigation. Just for starters.
When it comes to web design, you can’t afford to leave it to amateurs. Let a professional handle your design work and increase your odds of profitability.
A Web Design Tip To Keep You In The Social Loop
If you are a heavy social media user (and I highly recommend that you be) then I have a hot web design tip for you. Add a widget to your sidebar or a prominent position on your website that shows your latest tweets and social media activity.
These widgets are relatively easy to make. If you use WordPress as a blog or CMS then you can add a plugin that does this for you. If you are designing your website with straight HTML then you can go to one of the many widget websites and create a widget.
The best placement for your social widget is at the top of your sidebar or the bottom of the right-hand sidebar. If your social reputation is important to you then prominent placement of your widget above the fold will make sure it is visible to all your site visitors. But if you take a look at eye tracking software then you’ll find that the most looked at parts of a web page are the top left corner and the bottom right corner. People tend to scan from left to right and top to bottom starting in the top left corner.
A widget showing your latest tweets and social media activity can get you more followers on your social networks and on your blog. I highly recommend this web design tip.
Why Stylesheets Are Important
CSS – cascading style sheet – is a fairly new method of designing web pages, one that separates the presentation from the content. The main reason style sheets are important is because they allow you to design all the pages of your website with one file rather than use HTML to design every single web page and all the elements on each page. With CSS you can set the design elements one time and apply them to all of your pages by calling the stylesheet forward at the appropriate time.
Web design is no easy task any way you look at it. But HTML has its limitations. With CSS you can overcome those limitations and design your entire website from one document.
Stylesheets operate on classes, the essential element of web design with CSS. Every element on a web page can be assigned a class and you can design a unique look for every web page on your website by using one stylesheet. All you do is assign each web page element a class as defined by the stylesheet.
There are many advantages to doing it this way, but suffice it to say that a website designed with stylesheets is much more flexible than one that isn’t.
PHP: The Versatile Web Design Language
PHP is one of the most versatile web design languages available today. There is so much you can do and the options are very wide. You virtually have your choice of server types, hosting, database options, and many other variables. One of the best aspects to PHP is its ability to embed easily into HTML.
While you can embed PHP into HTML, unlike HTML, it is a server-side language. HTML is a browser-based language.
Web design is a lot more robust with PHP. You can script forms and do all sorts of other server-side scripting with PHP. You can also write command line scripts for your web pages. And you can also design desktop applications. But that’s not all.
PHP is compatible with all the major operating systems – Linus, Unix, OS X, Windows, and many more.
With PHP, your web design has so much more flexibility and a wide range of web design options is available to you. I highly recommend the use PHP for web design, not in place of HTML, but in conjunction with HTML.
Is Web Design Going Away?
It is easier now than ever before to get a website. You can practically throw one up yourself with no training and no web design background. With some popular content management systems on the market – WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, et. al. – you can build a site from scratch without knowing any HTML or code. And many web hosts offer sitebuilders for free. Sign up, pay your small monthly hosting fee, and start building. Easy, right?
Yes, easy. But not necessarily a benefit.
There is still search engine optimization to contend with. And just because you can build a site with no knowledge of web design doesn’t mean you should. Surveying websites built by designers and non-designers, even designers who use content management systems, there is still a big difference. And it’s noticeable.
Let’s face it, good web design requires specialized knowledge in the following areas:
- Search engine optimization
- Graphic design
- HTML (hypertext markup language) – Even if you use a content management system to build your website, a working knowledge of HTML is helpful.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – Again, even with a content management system, you might want to make some tweaks to your site sitewide and a working knowledge of CSS will be helpful.
- JavaScript and PHP – Two more coding languages that can be helpful.
- Working with images
- Copywriting
- Sales – Writing for the web is selling; if you can’t write sales copy then you’ll need to hire someone who can.
- Web standards
- Online marketing strategies
As you can see, there is a lot to learn when doing it yourself. You can take the time to learn it and fail by trial and error a few times until you succeed, or you can hire a guide to help you. Web design isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, experts in web design will always be needed.
Should You Build Your Site With A Template Or Straight HTML?
Website design is not an exact science. It is part art and part science, which might come as a surprise to some people. Those people might consider it 100% art.
I consider it partly a science because there are some technical aspects to website design that require a scientific-like approach to thinking. Artistic endeavors are typically right brain activity. Science hails from the logical part of the brain, which is on the left hemisphere of the big grey lobe.
But whether you approach web design from a scientific or artistic perspective is largely how you see your role as web designer. If you are strictly artistic in your approach then you might look for a template and move things around as you see fit. If you are more scientific, or at least a mixture, then you may prefer to build your site with straight HTML.
A template can be good and save you some time. But there are things to look out for. Is your template optimized for search engines? If not, you’d better be prepared to modify it or ditch it. With HTML, you can influence that fight right from the beginning.
Website design really is not so cut and dry. There are a lot of variables and you have to remain flexible. Whether you built with a template or straight HTML isn’t as important as making sure that your site ranks well for its keywords and that it is capable of converting traffic to sales. If you can do it with a template then you should; if you prefer HTML then you should go that route. Either way, a great site is a great site.
WordPress As A Web Design Tool
WordPress has come a long way since its first introduction. Over the years the blogging software has earned a solid reputation for being an easy-to-use platform with better than average SEO benefits for users. One of the cool things about WordPress is its world class support and the never ending list of plugins available. But I’d say that in the last year WordPress has stepped out as one of the top content management systems on the market and one of the things that makes it so useful is the ability to design a great web site using only the tools available in the package.
In the old days web designers would borrow an off-the-shelf WordPress theme and that served a useful purpose. But in the last couple of years a few savvy web designers have developed premium themes that anyone can purchase and those themes offer benefits that are not available with off-the-shelf themes. One benefit is the ability to actually design a custom website with strong SEO benefits. WordPress can actually be used to build a website without a blogging feature, which makes it a robust content management system deserving of the best respect.
When it comes to web design today, you don’t even need to know HTML. You can use a CMS like WordPress with a snazzy premium theme and design your site like a pro. I think that’s awesome.
Web Design Tip: How Many Sidebars Do You Need?
Recent web design styles have websites showcasing multiple sidebars. In many cases, you’ll see two sidebars – one on the left and one on the right. But you might often see both sidebars on the same side of the page as well. Then there are the three sidebar styles. Rarer, but still common.
The question must arise when you are designing your website, how many sidebars do you need? It’s no easy answer, but it is worth some consideration.
There are many different reasons for building a website with multiple sidebars. You’ll have to consider your website’s needs. And your audience’s needs and expectations. Do you have a lot of pages on your site that you could link to from one of your sidebars. How about several sister websites in the same family? Or do you sell links or advertising on your website?
Sometimes, webmasters add sidebars that aren’t necessary. They choose a web design because of it’s coolness factor and not because of practical concerns. The most important thing is to design a website that meets the needs of your users. Everything else is a matter of taste.
Web Design Tip
Here’s a quick web design tip you can implement right away and it will only take a few minutes. It’s really a branding element you can use to help establish your brand online but it just takes one line of code.
A favicon is a little icon that displays next to the URL in the address box of your browser. You can create one out of your logo, or any image, in just a few minutes. Go to Favicon.cc and upload your image or create one. Follow the directions and save your favicon to your hard drive. It should end with the .ico file extension.
You want to keep your favicon simple. Not too complex. Just like your company logo. If done right, it will brand your website online.
Place the code for your favicon in the head section of your html in every page of your website. You’ll need to upload your image to your server then include the following line of code (enclosed in brackets) in your html:
LINK REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF=”http://www.yourwebsite.com/favicon.ico”
That’s it. Now you have a favicon.
Is HTML Or A Content Management System Better For Web Design
You’ve decided to build a website to promote your business online. You don’t have a huge budget and you have limited technical skills. Should you build an HTML website or use a content management system?
There are pros and cons to doing it either way. But I’d say if you are a small business and you are on a tight budget then you might consider a content management system (CMS).
You are likely going to pay someone to set it up for you if you don’t have a lot of technical skills yourself. But you’d pay someone to design you a website using HTML as well. Either way, there’s an expense. And it costs about the same for HTML or a CMS design. The big difference, however, is in the ongoing maintenance.
With an HTML website, every time you want to update it you’d have to pay someone to update your website for you. It may not be much, but it’s an expense. With a CMS, once the initial set up is done, you can upload your content yourself. Just log in to the CMS and input your content. You can do that on your own and it won’t cost you a penny.
The only time a CMS will cost you is when performing routine maintenance or when fixing a periodic problem that requires technical skills you don’t have. Otherwise, ongoing expenses are less than for an HTML site.
Should You Design Your Website With HTML Or Use A CMS?
The question may come up for your company on whether or not you should hire a website designer to build you a site using HTML or whether you should use a content management system (CMS). Which is best for you?
Whether you design with HTML or use a CMS depends on a number of factors. Let’s start with how big a site you need. Do you need a large site or is a five-page portfolio all you need? If you are going to put up five pages and that’s that then you’ll probably do well just to build with HTML. It’s a quick down and dirty. But if you’re planning a larger site, say a couple hundred pages or more, then a CMS can be a great benefit.
Budget also plays into the factor. Got a large budget? Is the moon the limit? Then by all means, hire a fancy designer to do your site the right way. Can’t afford a great designer? Alright then, find one who will design you a site with CMS and teach you how to upload your own content.
Just one word of warning: If you do build with a CMS, make sure you configure it correctly. Some CMS systems do not crawl well and some will only crawl well if you set them up in a certain way. Dynamic pages, for instance, may see issues. And adding shopping carts and other third-party software to a CMS has its own issues. Just because the uploading of content is easy doesn’t mean that setting it up is easy.
A CMS can be a big time saver for companies that want to do a lot of their own, but don’t want to learn how to code with HTML. Some web design firms will work with you and teach you how to do some of your own uploading. You’ll just have to do your homework and do what is right for you.
Is Your Web Design W3C Compliant?
The World Wide Consortium, also called W3C, is an informal group of web professionals who are trying to establish standards for web design and other aspects of Internet marketing. While there are no rules for web design compliance, per se, it is a good idea to measure your web design according to W3C standards.
W3C implements its standards through recommendations. They are largely technical in nature and so far, since 1994 when it was started, the W3C has issued over 100 recommendations for the worldwide web.
One of W3Cs most recent recommendations is a best practices paper for mobile web applications. Some of the recommendations pertaining to mobile web applications include:
- Use Cookies Sparingly
- Inform the user about automatic network access
- Enable automatic sign-in
- Use transfer compression
- Avoid redirects
- Minimize external resources
- Cache AJAX data
- Offer users a choice of interfaces
These are just a few of the best practices recommended by W3C for mobile web applications and it’s just one example of the type of recommendations that the consortium makes to webmasters involved in web design and development. While there are no penalties for not complying with these recommendations, it is a good idea to check your web design against the W3C recommendations to ensure quality in web design and development.