Practically everything is on the web – from the stores we shop at, to the food we eat, to the latest news, to opinions from around the world.

With so much information flowing around, the competition to get traffic is fierce. No matter what niche you’re in, you are competing with millions of other websites. Publishing just any ol’ thing just isn’t going to cut it!

Think about the websites you visit on a daily basis… What makes you trust them?

Chances are, their website design has a lot to do with it!

Website design isn’t just the positioning of colors and letters on each page. It’s also picking colors that complement your logo and appeal to your target audience – while also having a layout that’s easy to navigate and features that don’t take too long to load. Coming up with a web design that turns your site into one that lasts the test of time is something that’s best left to a professional – unless you have oodles of graphic design, computer, and marketing experience (and, of course, the time to devote to it!).

Why can’t you just rely on free templates? After all, those were created by professionals!

Sure, free web design templates may be convenient. There’s nothing easier than “free”, right? However, if you take a look around the world wide web, you’ll see that it is a sea of free templates. If you really want to become a trusted authority, you will need a much better web design.

Think about it… do the websites you visit every day use free templates? No. Instead, they have specific features that make them unique, easier to use, and – overall – more professional and more polished.

So how do you create a website design that lasts?

Quality web design starts with the right code, and unless you’re a technological whiz, you can’t come up with it on your own. Code probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you, but it’s the basis of your entire web design.

You can compare code to the cement foundation of your home. You can’t paint or hang pictures on the walls without a solid foundation – and you can’t use quality graphic design elements without the right code.

Once you’ve got the basic structure down, there are a few things to remember when you’re coming up with the rest of your web design:

• Don’t use font that’s too small or too big

If the writing on your website is too small, people won’t be able to figure out what you’re saying – and they won’t spend a whole lot of time trying to figure it out.

But if your writing is too big, that’s a problem, too. The last thing you want is for people to have to spend a bunch of time scrolling to finish words and sentences. The more time they spend scrolling, the less time they’re spending on digesting your message.

• Don’t start your video or music automatically

It seems so state-of-the-art – having a video that starts playing as soon as visitors arrive, or having music to complement your visitors’ viewing experience. However, autoplay is considered downright annoying for lots of people.

The last thing you want to do is startle people with as soon as they arrive at your website. By having sights and sounds that come out of nowhere, you’re doing just that!

Bottom line – you can never go wrong with putting yourself in the mind of your target audience. By trying to think about what they will and won’t like, you can come up with a website design that establishes you as a trusted expert!