| When the internet first became popular years ago, it | | | | 2. Components- Beware of using "free webmaster |
| was o.k. to get your neighbor's kid to design a | | | | tools" for your guestbook, forum, or other site |
| website for you. Remember that? A page with a | | | | components. Such services often steal your hits, rob |
| bunch of square pictures and fonts of different sizes | | | | your traffic, and lower your Page rank in the search |
| and colors telling about yourself or your business. | | | | engines. They do this because your visitors must |
| WOW! We thought that was something! | | | | leave your site to sign your guestbook, etc. When |
| While that may have been acceptable 15 years ago, | | | | your pages are indexed by the search engines, they |
| today you would be the laughingstock of the | | | | will not be listed with your domain. Not to mention |
| community. Below we list three easy ways to spot a | | | | the fact that they are usually ugly. With today's easy |
| bad website, or 3 good signs of a bad website. This | | | | to use Content Management Systems, it is simple to |
| list will help you avoid common mistakes make by | | | | download and install these components on your site. |
| beginning web designers. | | | | This not only keeps your visitors on your site, but it |
| Here are 3 things you need to check when designing | | | | also helps you follow rule #1. |
| your website: | | | | 3. Compatibility- Not everyone uses the same web |
| | | | browser. Just because your site looks good on your |
| 1. Consistency-A website should be consistent in | | | | computer does not mean it looks good on others. |
| design throughout all pages. You should not have a | | | | Download Firefox, Netscape and a few other |
| picture of palm trees as the background for one | | | | browsers. See how your site looks on them. Then |
| page and pictures of Egyptian pyramids on the next. | | | | set your monitor to a different resolution and try |
| Your website should flow seamlessly like a software | | | | again. Make sure that you are not losing possible |
| program, not like a composite of 20 different sites | | | | clients because your website looks strange in their |
| piled on top of one another. Your font style and size | | | | browser. |
| should be the same on every page. It is best to use | | | | If you are going to put forth the effort to own a |
| a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) to control your font | | | | website, you might as well make it look professional. |
| sizes. However if you are not sure how to use one, | | | | Avoiding these three common mistakes in web |
| just do your best to make sure that each page | | | | design is a good start. |
| follows the same design standards. | | | | |