There are tons of rules and guidelines about design and most of them are targeted towards a specific goal. However, at the end of the day there are just a few key things to remember that will make your website friendly and accessable to the majority of visitors and search engines, so here are our top 5 free website design tips that should always be followed.
1. Never use splash pages
A splash page is some graphic greeting, usually in the form of a Flash animation or some image, that prompts visitors to click a link to enter the main site area.
These pages may look pretty, but unless your site is a selling tool for your graphic arts skills all a splash page really does is force visitors to jump through extra hoops to get at the information they came to your site for.
Many visitors will hit the "Back" button on their browser rather than the "Enter" link for your site because of this.
And just as bad as that, you're not giving the Search Engine spider bots anything of value to read on your site's most important page.
2. Don't use pop-up/pop-under advertisements
They have no value on the web anymore. People have become "trained" to ignore them. The very small amount of money you may earn from serving these type of advertisements will not compensate for the traffic you'll lose in the way of return visits.
There are much more effective ways to advertise on a website that won't annoy or upset your visitors, use them.
3. Use simple and clear navigation
You know what your site is about and how your content (sections or categories) is organized, but assume that none of your visitors will understand it when creating your navigation system.
Just offering a search box feature isn't enough either. Like splash pages, a lot of visitors won't see the search function as a benefit, they'll view it as a hoop to jump through for getting the desired information.
Give your visitors a simple and easy way to move around from page to page, and section to section of your site.
That's also important for search engine spiders. They won't use the search feature either, and will only find your site's inner pages if you have a clear linking structure in place from the main page down.
4. (more on navigation) Always make it clear where your visitor is on your site
The bigger your site gets, the more levels of sections and categories you will have. Always make it clear at the top of your pages which section/category/level the current page (and user) is on.
People can become confused easily, and that leads to an "I'm out of here" action. If you make it clear where a visitor is at on your site they'll feel more comfortable and stick around longer.
5. Only use media that enhances the value of your site
Video and streaming audio has become more common online, but outside of sites targeted specifically to those mediums (like YouTube) a "less is more" approach should be taken when adding media to your pages.
If your site is about creating paper airplanes it might be useful to embed one or two instructional videos on making paper airplanes, but having dozens of videos just showing people throwing their paper airplanes isn't going to impress anybody. It will just slow down your page loads and annoy visitors, which drives people away from your site.
There they are, our best free website design tips to keep in mind when planning your next project.