In a world where the Internet is a source of income for many people, it is often a good idea to try to ensure that income-generating sites are designed to be maximally profitable. Of course, variables such as the kind of products that one sells and the marketing strategies that they employ have a huge effect on how much profit they make. However, the simple issue of how to do proper web design is also very important, and this is why it has to be done correctly. To ensure that this is so, there are a number of general principles that you have to keep in mind. Most of these are often neglected, as people tend to concentrate on visual aspects of the site only when doing web design.
Page load speed
One of the most important issues that you have to keep in mind when you are doing web design is to design it in such a manner that it can load fast. You have to remember that there are many people who are usually impatient, and if they find that your site is too slow they will simply work with one of your competitors. This is especially so when you deal with online sales of small items, or when you depend on ad impressions for your income.
Many things can be modified to ensure that your page loads faster, but the most important of these are the graphics that you have. It is a good idea to keep the graphics on your site very small in size, so that even a moderately slow internet connection can load the page fast. This way, you will not have to worry about losing customers due to slow loading speeds.
How navigable the site is
This is another very important issue that most people tend to ignore. If you have a website that is very difficult to navigate, you will definitely end up losing customers. In addition to that, features such as cluttered content may end up making your site looking unprofessional, and you will definitely lose customers due to this. It is therefore always necessary to insist on intuitive formatting of the site. This way, even the new visitors will be able to navigate it without much of a problem.
Browser compatibility
When you are designing your own site as a novice, chances are that you will test it using your favorite browser. By doing this, you will be making the grave assumption that all browsers can display content in the same way. However, due to differences in handling issues such as formatting and font, you will find that content will be rendered differently in different browsers. The fact that your customers will be using all kinds of browsers means that you would need to optimize your site to render properly on all the popular ones to ensure that all of them can access it. In addition to that, you may need to check the site using different browsers just to make sure that everything is fine before putting the site online.
The issue of screen sizes
These days, people access the internet using all kinds of devices, from smartphones that have 5-inch screens to 40-inch monitors. When you design your site, you may need to keep this fact in mind, and make sure that you cater to all the different sizes. On a related note, you should also try to make sure that your site can be rendered on screens of varying resolutions, from 640 x 480 all the way to 1024 x 768. If this is not done, your site may look odd to some of your customers.
In summary, the goal of doing web design is to ensure that the site is as friendly to your customers as possible. Whether you are using the site to make money through online ad impressions or to sell merchandise, you will find that making them happy in this manner is crucial. The key to making proper web design decisions is knowing that different people with different kinds of devices will need to access the site, and then making sure that you design it in such a manner that all these people can do so comfortably.
The writer, John Miller is a very tech savvy person. He works for a company called the Webfirm, which helps its clients develop their business’s Web presence.