There are some basic norms that are essential to keep in mind while designing a site. Designing a site is not a one person job. Equal contribution must be made by the web or graphic designer and content developer. Let's us analyze some of the basic rules required for designing a successful website. Easy to read To make a powerful website, the very first rule is that your web site should be easy to read.

Right from the font size to the background color of the pages, each element should be selected after proper thought. There must be a balance between the text and background color. In no way, one should dominate the other. Keep the text size normal, not too small or too large and there should be minimum use of capital words. The alignment of the main text of your site must be kept on the left as it makes it easy for visitors to read the content.

Good Navigation Almost all the pages must have some links to other pages of your site. Try to make the hyperlinks clear so that visitors can easily find it. Moreover, graphic images, like buttons or tabs, should be properly labeled and easy to read, instead of making them flashy. Within three clicks, the visitor must be able to visit the webpage he or she is looking for. And moreover, the hyperlinked text should covey the message properly without misleading the visitor.

Remember, the visitor can be fooled once but not always. Proper Promotion It is totally a wrong notion to think that the work is complete after building a web site. In reality, the real work starts from there. What is the use of the site if there are no visitors? Here, comes the importance of promoting your site both online and if required offline. You can promote your site online through search engines, award sites, directories, banner advertising, electronic magazines and links from other web sites.

However, instead of doing on your own, it is better to take help of professional web marketing teams. And when it comes to offline promotions, it can be done through traditional advertising methods like print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Consistency in design The layout and design of each and every webpage of your site should be consistent so that it gives a uniform look to the overall site. Moreover, it also projects a professional image.

The designer should be particular about the use of font, background color, placement of images, headings, footers. If you are using the color blue for the hyperlinked texts in one page, the other web pages of the site should also follow the same pattern. Quick to download There are many studies which show that visitors leave a site for another if the web pages do not download within 3-4 seconds. No matter what type of web sites you might have, critical importance should be given to download times as that it can be accessed by the visitors with varying connections (both high-speed and low speed).

A heavy web page with very attractive graphics that take ages to load is no good. For websites which are new in the market, it become even more essential to keep the download time as short as possible. However, for a branded name like say Microsoft or Nike, people can wait for some time but for a new one, users will consider it just wastage of time.

In the end, you can adapt some of your personal preferences which you might want to add in your site. However, the above mentioned rules must be incorporated first by any web designing company.

James Elliott is a website designer who offers Affordable Web Design in UK. His Web and Graphic Design in London is quite popular and his articles have been appreciated over various parts of UK on both online and offline platforms.