» Web graphics and layout for your site
In this section we cover the pros, cons and main factors to consider with your graphical content (Photos and Navigation etc).
Design and graphics is a very tricky area in web design as there are many things to be aware of. We have outlined below the main considerations to take into account when deciding on design, photos and navigation of your web site.
» The elements of web page creation
Design - The first thing to think about is the design, the way your site will look when finished. This can be based on your present company branding or it may be that you are starting from scratch and need to create an identity from new.
The best way to produce a functional and effective design is to have some kind of identity for your establishment whether that is a business, charity or non-profit based web site. The sites that are most visually memorable are the sites with identity. Take Tesco for example or Orange you will remember their branding very easily even if you had not heard of them before.
Once you have an identity you will have an idea for a colour scheme as this would be in some way attached to your branding.
Layout - The layout of your site should be functional rather than graphical there is a reason for this. The search engine reads your page like a book from top to bottom, left to right, if you have masses of large images to create your design the search engine's spider will just see blank space where the image was. Your design should offer the search engine content as close to the top of the page as possible. The quicker it can get to the nuts and bolts of your page the happier it is.
Navigation - Your Navigation is very important, you need to think of descriptive, easy to read and meaningful links rather than graphics that mystify the user until they click the button or reach the page. Remember the simpler it is for the user the better it is for your site.
Photos and graphics - Everyone loves to have photos and pictures on their site this is because the visual representation of related subjects can help the user to identify what the page is about without reading masses of text. However don't get carried away when having images on your pages as they very often cause cluttered areas in your site and can also push your text into unreadable or badly aligned text.
The other mistake many people make is to create images to show text. This is unnecessary as you can layout text to achieve the same goal.
Animated Sites - Animated sites are ok if you are already running an html site along side it, generally if you want to use flash animated sites make sure that you have allowed a budget that covers the html one as well. The reason for this is that the search engines cant read the text within an animation and therefore have nothing to judge you on.
BM Media will not accept liability for breach of copyright on work done by us to your content so be careful and make your own content.
Summary of Graphical Content
Don't go overboard with graphics and images, steer well clear of background images and don't create your textual content using graphics. Make sure all your images are relative to the content you aim to sit them next to. Most importantly make sure you own the rights or have permission to use any graphics you aim to use on your web site.
