Website designing for beginners.

There are a countless number of websites on the World Wide Web. How do you make your site stand out in this ocean of clutter? Simple, you have to be very clear about the goals of your intended website.

Is it Business?

Running an online business is the cheapest way to rapidly expand your small business and reach customers from all over the globe. The website has to be tailored to suit your business.

Is it Personal?

Individuals use personal websites to communicate ideas, theories or perhaps a philosophy to others. Or perhaps just to have a presence on the web because everyone is doing so. Pictures can be shared with with friends and family. They sometimes use websites to keep in touch with loved ones. But the website design needs to reflect what the person wants to convey.

Things to keep in mind:

Know your target audience -- Keep their expectations and needs in mind. Users can range from the novice to the expert. A good website should be designed keeping this in mind. It should not be too complicated to intimidate the former and at the same time not too simplistic as to patronize the latter.
Blueprint for the web design -- It should include specific strategies around which the website will be designed. How long it will take to build the site and how the site will evaluated and maintained. All this needs to be worked out in the budget for the website.
How does it read -- The content is the most important but time consuming part of a website. Make a database of what you have, to get a clear idea of what else you need.
Web Designing is not the place to get penny wise – A professional looking website with good content and which is easy to use will attract more viewers than a site that uses garish colors, hard to read fonts and badly written content. A web designer might charge anything from $500 to $2000 but it will be money well spent if the designer provides the right look. If your finances don't permit, then some online sites let you design your own website, for very little, from a catalog of templates. This may not be a bad idea if you are comfortable using the computer.

Whatever your intended purpose of the site, there are some fundamentals that are to be followed by beginners as well as seasoned webmasters.

Ensure that your website is developed keeping multiple audiences in mind.
Do not use an excess of frames and platform specific code as it may hamper the site coming up in other browsers. However the newer versions of the popular browsers do handle frames well.
Whenever possible, avoid using heavy graphics as it significantly increases the page download time.
Always test your website in the popular browsers to ensure that everything comes up as intended. The popular browsers are Intern Explorer & Mozilla Firefox.
Use features such as CSS style sheets to allow you to maintain your site easily.
If you are adding dynamic content to your site, try and keep the design elements distinct from the database driven content.
Always provide a “bread crumbs” or easy navigation links to allow user to directly jump from one area of the website to another. A site map is also good idea as it allows users to get a bird's eye view of what your website is all about.
Avoid pop ups as they are very annoying.
If you are creating a hyperlink that will open in another window, mention it clearly so users are not surprised.
Avoid using non standard link colors as it will only confuse the users.
Always provide an easy way for the users to contact you. This will ensure that you have a channel open for getting feedback.