There comes a time in every internet marketers life when the through of customizing their website design make them ask this simple question:

“How do I create a web site design that attract more visitors as possible and increase the desire to dig through all the pages?“

If we look at the most successful bloggers and internet marketers out there such as Yaro Starak, Jonathan Volk, Wanda & Paula, and so on, you’ll find a common trait, they have a simple and professional design too.

Many of my readers asked me what I really did to change my site design. Right now are at least two week I switched from my old theme frugal to the new Catalyst, and my theme customization job is radically accelerated. These are things that concern logo design, advertisement placement, layout, subtitle, change background color, and so on.

Well, these tips and ideas below are meant to kick start your own website design process.

1. Create your business identity – I suggest you to use 2/max3 primary colors for your design, and just 2-3 colors as secondary.

For my site I used the following colors:

Primary Colors:

• #578031 (Part of logo, main bar, ask question box, subscription form, text sidebar)
• #000000 (content slide)
• #232323 (some banner background)

Secondary Colors:

• #c2d2b1 (Main background)
• 1e2b50 (Part of logo)
• f5da05 (some text of banners)

Your website design look doesn’t seem like a cartoon but it must look right and professional. If you use too many colors, your business identity will be lost. Also, try to make your design as simple as possible. It looks good in black and white as well.

2. Build an irresistible brand –  When it comes to build an irresistible brand, you have to take what you learn about yourself, your audience, and your competition, I suggest you answer these simple question first to design it:

1. What makes you unique?
2. What is your message?
3. What are your favorite colors?

Is there a specific design style that you really like? To help you choose a design style I reccomend to take inspiration from www.dafont.com Once download the font, just unzip the file and copy it on D>windows>font.

Now, if you open any microdsoft program like Wordpad, or even program like Gimp, Photoshop, you are able to select the font and create your favorite logo style.

3. Clear website navigation – Navigation should be clear and consistent. Don’t putting your navigation links in different places. Your visitors could get confuse. Once you have decided on your navigation links, put them in the same location, and in the same sequence. Usually the main nav bar should link to the page you want most highlight.

The main link should contain an navigation bar are:

• Home page – Link to your home page.
• About me page – It contains a full description about you and your site. Read here how to build an about me page.
• Contact page – Contant your contact information, form, email, and so on.
• Disclaimer –  It contains the terms of use and privacy policy as well.

On my navigation bar I also included other link such as:

• Resources – Link to the page contains the best resources I’m using on my site.
• Guest – It contain all rules to write as guster on my blog.
• Services – It contains a full list of services I do for my clients.
• Archive – It contains all topics of my blog.
• Top Resources – Full list of best post on my blog based on topic.

4. Simple icons – Instead of using big, bulky images use simple and small icons that add a little color and draw the attention of a visitor. You can use it in your homepage to highlight the main sections of your site.

5. Gradient background - CSS gives you a lot of flexibility and allows you to create a cool vertically graduated background as well. No matter how long the page is, it doesn’t affect your page load time because you are using graphics that are only a few kilobytes in size.

Through the following code, the background.png file need only be one pixel wide.

This script below assures that the gradient fades into white, but the background color attribute could be any value. With my Catalyst theme, all I have to do is to go on custom css section and place this piece of script inside. That it!

body {
background-image: url(http://www.the3dtechnologies.com/db/2011/01/background.png);
background-repeat: repeat-x;
}

Of course you can use this code to create your gradient background on any html or php website or blog.

6. White on Black isn’t good – That is one mistake I’ve noticed too in some blog. White text on black background, light text on white backgroung, black text on black background, is one of the worst combination of colors. It doesn’t help to make your content easy to read and could hurt people eyes.

Many people have already written in detail about the steps needed to build website with a great design. Today, I’m not here to give you some tips I’ve learned here and there, but I want tell you how develop a strong web site design on base to my experience in these years.

Image credit: Bit ramone

Here, my basic steps required to develop a web site design.

I know that there are much more of web design books, sites, tutorials out there that they can satisfy any your needs, but I want give my contribute especially for beginner’s, saying them how develop a web design from a completely different perspective.

Type of content. For first, your site should be designed, on base what type of content you are going to have. When you develop the design of your site, the structure of your content must be a font of inspiration for your web site design.

Be simple. There is not need to put ton of elements on the same page with the aim to give your reader’s more information. If your readers come from the search engines or social media, usually are searching for one specific article, so you need to focus only on a thing and add secondary information relate it and that can complement it. The rest keep separate.

Website Components

Home page and Individual page are the two greatest important elements of your site, and it is evident that a lot of time and care you need put in order to making it as accessible and intuitive.

Homepage. Presentation is an important part of business. This is your portfolio, business card, CV, all in one. There is not need to have a spectacular graphics, or special effect and video professional to build an effective page. All you need to do is adopt a simple approach with clear content, and give valuable and unique informations to your readers with components that support that theme.

Individual pages. It’s how your homepage because visitors who will come on your site from search engine or social media will  once seen your individual pages will leave your site without even ever seeing your “home”. To strengthen the visibility of this pages, use link and put them inside contents, for example when there are two articles that talk about the same topic.

Sidebar. Usually is the area where put the links, and other visual elements that allow your site reader to access other relevant sections. But can be a strategic point to insert block ads that can bring additional earns.

Footer. Recently is become an area where put strategic navigational and informational device.

Content. Focus on creating content that work well, through a clear communication, give your readers a few good valuable things and include information components that support them.

Images. Bloggers often use a combination of words and images to convey a message. Some use more words and less images others use more images and less words. Combining the power of the verbal image with the visual can either enhance your story. Like words, a photograph tells a story.

Template. It’s no secret that using a professional template will help to increases visitor duration. I love WordPress revolution theme. I’ve used a 2 column Vertigo theme created by Brian’s how my first wordpress theme on the3dtechnologies.com, but WordPress revolution theme is better yet, because his designs are fresh and fabulous and they encourage visitors to surf around the site longer. WordPress revolution theme has a lot of features but it is not appropriate for me to list here. So if you are interested you can find more information and resources here.