In today's highly technical world, everything is online. There is nothing you cannot buy, sell, trade, research, find pictures of, or play if you have a computer and Internet connection. These days, there is a web site out there for anything you could name.
Which means that someone probably has a web site a lot like yours? As competition for page views grows more intense, web design more technical, and the Internet more popular, good web design becomes more important than ever before. If you have a web site, then you want visitors to view that site. Good web design is the only way to make that happen.
The average Internet cruiser is more jaded these days, harder to impress. Good web design is the only way to get repeat visitors. There are several basic key elements to good web design that every web designer must know how to use.
Content
Internet search engines have grown very clever about searching content on web sites these days. Good web design is centered on your web site's content. What keywords will people search to find your site? Once you know what your keywords are, you have to have plenty of content on your site that features those keywords. There are several free web sites that allow you to check your keyword content. Use them. Content is what search engines look at first, so it is here that you must make your impression.
Links
Search engines, and your visitors, love links. You want links that connect to other pages of your site, internal links, as well as external links that connect to pages outside your domain. The more links you have, the better, so use them liberally throughout your site. Links also improve the navigation of your site, which is incredibly important to good web design.
Graphics
Bright colors, pictures, and fun fonts will make or break your web site. Graphics are going to fly at Internet cruisers every way they look, so you want to make an impression with the graphics on your site. Good web design is about a pleasing flow of colors, pictures, graphics, and text. Don't over clutter your pages, but make them exciting and interesting to look at.
Design professionals may try to project your personality but they often prevent it from shining through by using the same techniques they use on their other web sites. It's much better to be yourself and create something which they might call amateurish then it is to end up with something that looks and reads like everybody else's web site. Understand that the internet web site is the last true art form of the 20th century, so try to be creative. Think outside the box. And then create your own box.
