Do Not Be Intimidated By Web Design ... It's Far Easier Than You Think

About 5 years ago I believed that web site design was difficult and best left to experts. Yes, I did feel that my lack of knowledge of HTML and my distinct reluctance to learn it would always hold me back. I cannot recollect when it dawned on me that effective web design did not need any knowledge of HTML whatsoever and that it was NOT difficult. In fact I shortly after this revelation came to the conclusion that most web design was expensive, uneducated, and a waste of time for most website owners.

A web site is a collection of web pages. A web site can be one page or as many pages as you like. Each page can be as long as you like it to be and it can contain any information in any format you like. The most important part of any webpage is the written word. You will succeed or fail based upon the words you write and nothing else. As you explore this website the reason for my making such a strong statement will become evident.

Some people swear by longer pages and others by shorter ones long pages are best suited to story telling or lists of FAQs (frequently asked questions) and sales landing pages when potential doubts just have to be removed to convince a customer to buy. In general shorter pages have more impact on a customer or visitor arriving from a PPC search engine search.

Do not be afraid of web design.

Much of the work involved in web site design when done by designers for outside parties using information supplied by the outside party is cut and paste into a template ... I have NOT exaggerated the simplicity involved here. It does serve the point that web design can be extremely easy and you do NOT need to know any HTML. There are millions of web sites out there who do not mind if you copy their look and feel which is easily done using something we call "view source".

The hard part of web design is creating the original content and doing the market research correctly and intelligently before even thinking of creating a design.

Pictures on web sites

Some web sites have lots of pictures, some none. There is no absolutely right or wrong. There are however preferred approaches to web design that we will cover and refer to quite a lot throughout this website. The point is that because one person designs to achieve a certain appearance does not mean this is more correct.

In web selling appearances are very deceptive.

A web page when viewed on screen is not really much different in terms of composition than any word processor document. To create a web page you do NOT need to know any code or HTML at all. All you need is to be able to type, place pictures and create links to other parts of the same web page, web site or any other web site. Even now after creating some 60 web sites and thousands of web pages I do not know how to write HTML. I do know however when someone elses HTML is badly letting them down in terms of web success. I can also read the important bits of it and I can copy and paste HTML. I use Microsoft FrontPage for all my websites.

A great way to learn the important and basic bits of HTML using Front Page is to start constructing a page from the beginning. At every step take a look at the HTML code generated (simplicity itself using Front page). You will quickly pick up what is happening and why. I will give a very practical example of correct HTML usage later and how you can watch what happens when I discuss how to properly construct a web page.

Thus what makes the web page ultimately different from an MS word text document is that the normal written page has to be converted into HTML in order that it can be interpreted by any web browser anywhere in the world. What you wrote in MS Word reappears like magic after conversion to HTML by the web browser

The message I would sincerely like to convey is that doing your own web site is not difficult at all. Of course there is a little learning required but unless you want to be an expert bells and whistles web designer it is easier, quicker, cheaper, more convenient and better to do it yourself than employ someone else to do it for you.

You remain in total control this is what is really important about web marketing.

If you are prepared to buy a decent WYSIWYG HTML editor you can create extremely powerful web documents yourself in very little time I wholeheartedly recommend Microsoft Front Page based quite simply on my own success. By the way contrary to what you might be told many of the top web marketers deliberately use Front Page for sound cost/benefit reasons.

I bought MS Frontpage as my HTML editor without knowing exactly why. This was a bit of luck. It is simple, it is powerful and it is easy to use on a daily basis. It was worth every penny. If you do not want to buy an editor there are lots and lots of free ones on the web. Go to Google and search for - wysiwyg HTML editors free - do use the inverted commas in your search exactly as shown.

Do not be put off by the massive size of Front Page manuals you will not need 90% of the information to succeed handsomely.

There are hundreds of free web site development programs around. It is simply a matter of taking your pick however if you are really serious I suggest buy Microsoft Front Page and let it do all the clever and menial bits for you automatically. The trouble with using free stuff is that sooner or later it becomes inadequate and almost certainly insists you do much menial work yourself.

The professional or traditional web designer community seem to prefer Dreamweaver. My main reason for using the Microsoft product is the fact that I use other MS products and I do not need hassles when swapping between applications.

Many traditional web designers do not like Front Page and other similar packages. I suspect the real reason is that it allows people like you and me to do our own web sites and that it takes away what was a black box expensive mystery before.

Let me repeat ... It is not the appearance of the web page or web site that is critical to success it is the way the web page or site is written and constructed as part of a larger plan or objective that is really critical.

When it comes to web sites and selling words are more important than pictures pictures should be allowed to serve the purpose of allowing the customer to see what the product looks like for example. Any picture must add value to the readers experience not the designer's ego.

At this stage these are some of the fundamental web site design strategies to consider: I do not intend to justify these comments but simply to list what I have learned and believed to be correct for good reasons.

• Do NOT use frames in your web pages

• Pages should preferably and where appropriate open in less than 12 seconds on modern 56K modems if possible (this alone means pictures are bad news)

• Pages should be attractive but not necessarily flashy. Do not use dark backgrounds without good reason and if you do make sure you use light and contrasting text.

• Each page heading is important

• Each pages official title (not what you see on screen) is EXTREMELY CRITICAL

• Do not use light text on light backgrounds.

• Layout should follow some basic rules

• White space is important

• Clever tricks (called SPAM) of which there are many designed to fool search engines MUST be avoided .

• Use links a lot and use words for the links not pictures or image buttons and not words like HOME or CLICK HERE either.

• Create many many web pages you cannot create too many