There are right and wrong ways of using links in web design. Using them the right way ensures easy navigation with no surprises or confusion. Using them the wrong way will annoy your audience and at worst send them away. A website is all about keeping visitors engaged while they are with you. Attracting them in the first place is a whole other science. Putting as few barriers between them and your products is the best way to convert visitors into customers.

On the internet it is automatically assumed that anything underlined is a link. If you underline things and they aren’t links, you could be creating confusion for your audience. If text needs emphasizing use italics or bold or even a different color. When linking to something it is much safer to stick to convention and make them blue and underlined. This is what the audience expects, so it pays to give it to them. Almost all websites use this method, trying something new or different is only going to confuse people. While design is all about pushing boundaries and limits, there are certain things you don’t mess with. Links are one of them.

It always helps if you explain to the reader what you are linking to. Spend at least a sentence or two explaining where the link will send them, and maybe why. Depending on the site, and the context it may not always be appropriate, but always try to tell the visitor where you are sending them. After all, they may not want to go. Use descriptive link text too, it adds to the information provided to the reader. Don’t be tempted to just say “link” or “here”, that’s just plain lazy.

For example: “Check out our special offers, hot sellers and new products”

as opposed to; “Check out our special offers here, hot sellers here and new products here.”

As you can see in this rather crude example, the first one reads much better than the second. Most readers merely scan the page rather than read every single word. Using non descriptive words interrupts the flow of the page and forces the reader to re-read the sentence to understand what’s going on.

When using internal links within a site, don’t have them open in a new window. Even with the advent of tabbed browsing, that still annoys a visitor. Not everyone is as web savvy as us, or can handle as many tabs as we can. Navigation buttons work well, allow the visitor to use them.

Use a separate window or tab for external links at all times because it allows for the user to quickly come back to your site. The external site is separate, so it’s fine to link to that in a new window.

Linking is what makes the internet work. It is the reason that minutes on the web can turn into hours as we travel seemingly randomly following links across the world. It works because there are rules, and for the most part those rules are obeyed. Ensure any designs you produce follow these rules, and allow your visitors to enjoy the web as much as we do.

Using Links in Web Design is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

The good news is you can contact a graphic design group and ask them what they suggest. Chances are, it’ll turn in to a very successful agreement where they’ll develop the site for you. However, what they’ll be able to do is help you figure out which colors are best. For example, do you want blues and greys or do you want reds and blacks? Or, do you want to mix a little bit of brown and green to give it that slight outdoors look to it? If you’re not a designer, it can be really difficult and intimidating to deal with all these questions.

Here are a few rules to keep in mind when you’re dealing with colors. They’re not always the rules, but nine times out of ten, they’re a safe bet and a good way of determining what is and what isn’t. Here they are:

If you’re going to use a dark background, such as a dark blue, dark grey, or a dark black, you need to have a color that offsets it well. Don’t use yellow because yellow contrasts too much with most colors. Try a white, cream, or light grey to be used for the wording.
• The more color on a site, the brighter it appears, the better. However, that doesn’t mean have a rainbow on the site. What it means is that you need to make the site brighter. Lighter colors with a darker text is better because it appears “happier.”
• With the understanding of a site looking happier…Blues are easier on the eyes than reds. When someone sees something red, naturally, it’s a stimulant. Blues are more of a depressant. This doesn’t mean that looking at a blue site will make the reader depressed. It doesn’t trigger some sort of a mental discomfort like a red might.

These are just three of the many rules out there about coloring. Do you use a light grey or a dark grey? Do you use blue or green? There are so many questions that you can ask, it can definitely lead to an overload. Your best bet is to sit down with a designer and explain what your needs are. They’ll be able to suggest what colors to use and how to make the site look the best possible. So, call your designer.

Finding Colors That Work For Your Site is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

A good business website will always be open.  You can sell or promote your products while you’re out relaxing, or doing something else.  You can sell while asleep or trying to land a marlin, it doesn’t matter how you spend your time, just that you are open to trade.

Even if you don’t want to do e-commerce and sell things over the internet, a good web presence is invaluable for promoting you or your business.  If nobody sees you, you may as well not be there.  That’s why it’s so important to get your website just right.  Think of it as a virtual store.  You open your real store or office and make sure it’s clean and inviting for visitors.  Make sure they can see what they need or can get to it easily, then find their way to the till.  A website should be thought of in exactly the same way.

If you don’t already have a website then RT Design group can help make this all a reality, and for much less than you would imagine.  A quick call or email to the studio and we can arrange for a free, no obligation quote where we can discuss your needs and what we can do to meet them.

The RT Design Group Lehigh web design team can either design something from scratch, integrate your own ideas, use your existing site or all of the above!

Here are some of the things we can do for you;

• Custom Web Designs
• Site Redesigns/Updates
• Splash screens
• Graphic Design
• Logos and Branding
• Wordpress and Drupal Theme creation
• Animations
• And much more!

Every day that visitors click through your site rather than linger and order, you lose money.  Nobody in business wants that.  Let your local web design team help you appeal to both local and a global audience and help you start making more money, now!

Lehigh Web Designer is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

In the coming weeks we will be making lots of posts on here for you, some will be technical stuff telling you what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Other stuff will be more like a personal post, kind of like this one is. Stay tuned for more!

And of course we offer free quotes, don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.

Happy holidays!

Port Charlotte Web Design is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

If you need professional web design services or help marketing your business, contact us and get a free quote.

You can also stop by our Bonita Web Design company if you get a minute.

Bonita Web Design is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

Perhaps we will try it out when the design is done and see if it works.

To add a price page or not… is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design