By Dan Grossman
It happens to most good webmasters. They get the urge to redesign their websites! If you're not happy with your site; it's not pulling enough sales, you're not generating enough pageviews, it takes forever to load, or any other problem, it may be time to redesign the site. While this can be a major project for most site owners, it can also be well worth it if you do it right. Here are some things to consider when building your website.
=> Designing the Site
The first thing you'll probably do is to define a basic layout, or a template, for the main pages of your site (or if every page is going to have the same feel to it, a single layout template).
Remember to keep in mind your goals, your reasons for designing a new layout in the first place. Make sure it's easy to find your content, that your menu is easy to follow, and that no page is too far from any other page of your site. While it used to be said that no page should be more than 3 clicks away from any other, in this new age of expansive sites with 100s or 1000s of pages, that may not be possible. But the idea is still very important, that it should be easy for a visitor to find what they're looking for quickly.
While your site shouldn't be ugly or too simple, be sure not to overdo it with graphics or bright colors. Try to find a balanced color scheme when designing your site, consisting of several main colors to use throughout the site's design. A few good places that can help in choosing colors can be found at http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/ or http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/http://www.paletteman.com/
You should also keep in mind that consistency helps your visitors to navigate your site. Keep your pages consistent in design and navigation and they'll thank you for it by visiting more pages in a visit.
=> Improving The New Design
Once you've finished the new design for your website, take a break. Leave it for several hours, or even a few days, before returning to work on it. Then, with a fresh perspective, take a good look at your design and try to improve it. Again, don't forget why you chose to redesign your site in the first place.
=> Helpful Resources For Redesigning Your Site
To finish this article up, here are a few helpful sites to visit to make redesigning your site a little bit easier. Good luck!
Split up large images into smaller ones
http://www.jbarchuk.com/gifsplit/
Create MouseOver effects for your site
www.websitegoodies.com/enhance/mouseover.shtml
Generate logos online with this free logo creator
http://www.coolarchive.com/logogen.cfm
Reduce load time by optimizing your GIFs
Generate META tags for your new site
http://www.metatagbuilder.com/
Check your HTML for W3C compliance
Check your spelling and links
http://www.siteowner.com/sitecheck.cfm
See how your site will look in other browsers
Over 250 hand-picked resources, articles, and tools when you visit: http://www.websitegoodies.com - As a bonus, Dan also publishes the free weekly "WebDevPortal" newsletter for website owners! Subscribe today and get articles like this every week: mailto:subscribe@webdevportal.com?subject=webdevportal-rds