The goal of any competent website designer is preparing a website that will be viewed as useful, pleasurable and informative as possible for visitors. You want to have your visitors stay on your site as long as possible. In order to do this, you must design your website in the most user-friendly way. This takes a number of factors into consideration including fonts, graphics, colors and text.

When designing your website, remember to use a font that is easy to read. You do not want your viewers squinting, second-guessing what you are trying to convey or only staying for a split second. Choose a user-friendly font that just about all the population will welcome reading. The most popular being Times New Roman. Avoid those fonts that involve curly lettering, which gives the impression of run-on language.

You also need to take your coloring into consideration when designing your website. How many times have you read a website description in a search engine listing, only to click on it and find the coloring extremely annoying? What did you do? More than likely, you immediately left the site. Avoid coloring and color combinations that cause excessive eye strain. These include a black background with white lettering, or bright, fluorescent background with black text. Instead, choose an easy-on-the-eye pastel background with black print to suit as many tastes as possible. Make certain your coloring is consistent across all your website pages.

Make your site easy to navigate around in. Your viewers come to your site for any number of reasons, and want to explore as much as possible in as little time as possible. Having a variety of tools such as a search box where they can type in what they are looking for serves this purpose. Another simple navigation tool is a site map which allows your visitors a chance to click on exactly what they are searching for.

Consider your page loading time when designing your website. A page that takes a while to open will lose your visitor’s interest and cause them to go elsewhere. Stay safe and use small graphics that load quickly. Avoid large graphics, streaming video and automatic music downloads which all need longer periods of time to open.

Another thing to consider when designing your website involves simplicity. Make your website as simple as possible to prolong your visitor’s experience. Complicated sites that involve a lot of clicking to find needed information will cause visitor frustration and annoyance.

Websites worth visiting avoid using distractions that annoy viewers. Distractions include pop-ups, complex background images and flash media. Not only are all of these a distraction to your viewers, but they can leave such a negative impression that your visitors will warn their friends, associates and social networking groups about your site.

Design your website with a way for your users to share information with their social network. In other words, make it social media friendly. Join as many social media networks as possible and make their logos easily viewable and make it possible to click the logo on your site to allow visitors a chance to share information.

Be sure to design your website with a page that includes information about yourself, your business and contact information. Many potential customers need to develop a trust-based relationship before making any purchases. Providing this type of insight is a great way to do this. Remember that the average website visitor has a short attention span. Design your website around this and watch your online success grow.