Graphics are an important part of Web Design but require serious thought and planning. Avoid The Cheap, Template-Based Web Sites There are hundreds of web-based businesses that promise to deliver a "custom" web site for as little as $20. The problem is that these sites rely on templates, or ready-made sites that have limited functionality and often unappealing designs. A flashy looking website with lot of graphics and slow navigation will not work for most professional websites. You probably won't be able to do what you need to do with a template site, and even worse, if visitors can recognize your site as being template-based, it will instantly shatter your credibility. Invest in a legitimate, custom-designed web site for your home-based business.

Accessibility is Key. Choose to be accessible to as many people as possible. That means creating web design that complies with the latest web standards as defined by W3C, and then working in fixes and shims for cross browser compatibility. It's all well and good to be snobbish about noncompliant browsers, but if you leave their users out of your big picture, you are shutting out a valuable market/audience.

Avoid the High-Cost Providers There are also hundreds of seemingly legitimate businesses that produce actual custom-designed web sites - for exorbitantly high prices. These firms will steer you toward paying for solutions to problems that you don't have, and charge you more than they should for what you do need. You are better off dealing with a freelancer, whether it be an individual or a small firm.

Less is more. That holds true for everything from file size to menu options. Despite the fact that broadband access is more widespread than ever, more than one-third of internet users are still on dial-up connections. There are dozens of portals on the web that allow you to advertise your needs - and then let freelancers place bids on your job. You consider the quality of the bidders' previous workmanship and the prices they are bidding, and select the one that seems best. Doing this can save you hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars and you are likely to get a high quality web site for under $1000. Best of all, most freelancers will also help you find a hosting plan that is right for you.

Web Design Essentials The most important element of your web design is its usability. This means it must load quickly (less of a problem in the modern age of cable modems and DSL), be intuitively navigable, and be useful - meaning, it must include everything the visitor expects and needs.

1. Place a navigation button for each Level 2 web page down the left-hand side of your Home page.
2. Place direct links to your Level 3 web pages at the appropriate points within the text of your Level 2 web pages.
3. On each of your Level 3 web pages place a link back to the Level 2 page that it was accessed from.
4. On each of your Level 3 web pages place a link back to your Home page. 5. On each of your Level 2 web pages place a link back to your Home page.

While designing, keep in mind that poor layout and design will make your pages unreadable and difficult to keep your visitors on your website for long. Some of the things that make a poor design and layout:

Text that is too small to read
Color combinations of text and background that make the text hard to read
Large graphic files that take forever to load
Multiple things that blink
Unclear navigation; over complex navigation
Paragraphs of type in all caps, bold, and italic all at once
Graphics that don't fit on the screen (assuming a screen of 640x460 pixels)
Animations that never stop
Complicated frames, too many frames, unnecessary scroll bars in frames
Cluttered, not enough alignment of elements
Some of the things that make a webpage stand out from the crowd:
Stay away from bad design features listed above.
Background does not interrupt the text
Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use
Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text
A large site has an index or site map
Link colors coordinate with page color
Every graphic link has a matching text link
Animated graphics turn off by themselves
Pages download quickly All pages have the immediate visual impact within 640 x 460 pixels

After you type the URL you are taken to the site you intended to visit. The first thing that will happen is that your computer will cache the page you have arrived at. It will cache every file on the page including the graphics files. The more files it has to cache and the larger they are the longer it will take to view the page. There are few things that can do a better job of turning an internet visitor off than slow loading pages. People may be patient in life but there is no such thing as a patient web surfer. Make them wait and they will vote with their feet. Always remember that not every one has a high speed internet connection so design for slower surfers.

There are a few basic things that you can do to help speed your page load times and also make your site more attractive and user friendly.

1. Avoid using lots of bright colours.
2. Mainly stick to black writing on a white, or pale background.
3. Avoid patterned backgrounds.
4. Avoid cluttering up a web page with too much text or images.
5. Break your text up into small paragraphs - ideally no more than 3 or 4 short sentences per paragraph.