Website design tips

I make my living wage from websites - at first designing for others, and now running my own sites. Over the years I've compiled my very best tips on web design, and I'm sharing that with you here. This is vital because it's all too easy to create pages that upset your visitors even though that's not what you intended at all. And visitors who are annoyed are likely to click off of it quickly without seeing what you have to offer.

luckily, the most common website mistakes are very easy to prevent or fix. My big list of website design tips below will help you do just that.


(aged letter-number codes for each tip are for the benefit of college professors, who requested an easy way to refer to each tip.)

Provide convincing content / amazing of value

Make sure each page in your website has something valuable to offer.

Avoid Sleazy Elements

Don't distract your visitors with blinking or scrolling text, animated GIFs, or auto-loading sound.
Don't annoy your visitors with pop-up windows.
Don't use image backgrounds.

Make it Easy to Find Stuff

Put some thought into organization.
Minimize clicking!
Limit page length to 2 screenfuls, or 6-7 screenfuls for articles.
Include a way to get back to the home page, on every page.
Include a menu on every page.
Don't use frames.

Don't bog your website down

Compress your image files.
Don't let flashy multimedia ruin your site.

Website Readability

No line of text should be more than about 600 pixels wide.
Don't make your page too wide.
Use contrasting colors or simple backgrounds to make your text easy to read.
Make the text large enough to read.
Increase the line spacing (leading) to improve readability.
Don't type more than a few words in ALL CAPS.
Never use more than one exclamation point!
Use a spelling checker.

The right and wrong way to use links

Don't underline words if they're not links.
Make links blue or underlined, or both.
Explain what you're linking to.
Don't open internal links in a new window.
Use descriptive link text.

Be Accessible

Put your contact info, or a link to it, on the top and/or bottom of every page.

Make sure it works, and that it keeps working

Test your links.
Remove dead external links periodically.
Include a "Last Modified" date on the top or bottom of your pages.

Other webmaster tips

Don't steal content.
Don't hotlink to other sites' images or MP3's.
Don't ask for "permission" to link to a site.
Don't ask to exchange links with other sites.

Examples of what NOT to do

Hate Mail : We used to use Psycho Cycles as an example of a site that violated nearly every single guideline listed above, but they've redesigned it several times since then. But for nearly two years and counting, they've sent us a ton of illiterate hate mail and threats.

Other Resources

The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period! Stoney deGeyter offers a breathtaking list of important site characteristics for anyone trying to do business on the web.
Site Clinic. Jackie Baker reviews the design, copy, usability, SEO, marketing, and technical issues for sites that readers submit. It's kind of like "website makeover". Good stuff. She probably won't be able to review your site, but you can learn quite a bit by looking at how she evaluates other sites.

Guidelines for web credibility. Items that make your website appear credible to visitors. From Stanford University research.

Web Weaver Tips & Tricks This site has answers to questions like these :

What is Hotlinking?

Speed up page load time
Create a custom 404 page
Find out all about the favicon.ico.
Link to a specific spot on a page. Reference Tips For Uploading
Ascii or binary upload?
CHMOD - What is it? Website Maintenance Tips
Find out how many sites are linked to yours and who they are.
Find sites that are stealing your content.
Webpage redirection with .htaccess Other Quick Tips
Why some people are seeing an old version of your site