More To Web Design Than Meets The Eye

What image does your mind conjure up when you think of the term, Web Design? Do you imagine an aesthetically pleasing, colorful webpage with a flashy logo design? People do often consider that a website is an online art form. The designing of a webpage is thought of as a digital art form, in essence. However it is a lot more than merely making a site look attractive. Effective web design incorporates site functionality, usability and structure functionality and much more besides. Let us explore the steps to effective web design.

The structuring of the website is an important element of web design content. It is all dependent upon which platform you use to present your website’s content. You can choose from straight CSS, PHP or any of the other available coding options, or you can choose to use a script, such as Joomla or WordPress. There are pros and cons presented with each one of these options, and each one can affect search engine rankings.

The biggest dilemma presented with SEO and structure is with regard to the code used. For example, bulky code including unnecessary additional coding or multiple mistakes can slow down the loading time of your website. This can impact your SEO rankings since search engines often prefer faster loading websites. You can use the W3C Markup Validation Service to deal with errors. You can use this tool to rectify all the problems associated with your website’s ability to perform at its best. The perfect restructuring of your site will make it easier to navigate and use the site.

Usability is an important factor in how successful and effective your website will be. Is it easy for visitors to find and navigate around your website? You must make sure that they are able to travel easily between pages and back to the homepage. If they do get lost they may get frustrated and decide to leave and not to revisit. A reputable web design company can create a site structure and sitemaps that will make navigating your site easy for both human visitors and search engine spiders.

Another important aspect is good quality readability. Often website owners do not know that it is easier to read black text on a white background. Although black backgrounds may look modern and fun, this can be uncomfortable for your visitors to read. So, bearing this in mind, it would be best to opt for a darker text on a lighter background.

Functionally is also a major factor in an effective web design. It should not be difficult for your visitor to interact with your website. Although, generally speaking, this is not a problem that content only websites tend to encounter, it can be a problem for websites offering any method of interaction. If your site has a blog where comments can be made on your posts, for example, this function needs to be working properly.

When your site is not functioning well and contains things that don’t work properly, this can affect traffic and SEO over time. A visitor who repeatedly finds visiting your website frustrating, will obviously be less likely to revisit it.

Functionality of a website can include:
• providing a proper, fast working search function.
• ensuring it is easy to access all downloadable content.
• ensuring links are not incorrect or broken.