When you’re just starting out, we understand that the website design process can be a little overwhelming – even if you have some graphic design and coding experience. To help make the whole process a little easier, we have compiled what we believe to be some of the best tips for beginners. 

1. Practice Makes Perfect
   This is a universal truth that can be applied to pretty much any profession. Learning and mastering the different skills, languages and programmes used in website design is not something that will happen overnight – it’ll take time and practice.
   
   
2. Keep It Simple, Stupid
   You should always try to keep designs as simple as possible. It might be tempting to show off all the skills and tricks you learnt in school, but this has a tendency to make the website too busy and can have the adverse effect of turning readers away.
   
   
3. Use A Standardised Theme
   Don’t use different styles for different pages of the same website. Visitors will think they’ve somehow gone to another site. By keeping a consistent and standardised theme for the site, you’ll ensure that visitors don’t become confused when trying to navigate it.
   
   
4. Incorporate Responsive Design
   These days, a website will not succeed if it’s not responsive (which means that it adjusts itself according to the size of the screen its being viewed on). It’s fairly easy to learn responsive design if you haven’t already (although most schools do teach it).
   
   
5. Simple & Easy Navigation
   To help your visitors navigate the website with ease, it’s important to keep the navigation simple. Ensure that internal and external navigation links are kept open and quickly visible; this will ensure that visitors can find their way to the relevant page.
   
   
6. Search Engine Optimisation
   Also known as SEO, this practice utilises keywords to help a website rank higher in organic search results (non-paid results). If this isn’t something you have experience with, we definitely recommend partnering with someone who knows what they’re doing.
   
   
7. Respect Copyrights
   It is incredibly important that you respect the copyrights of others and give proper credit when you’ve used an image or content that doesn’t belong to you. Ignoring this rule could actually land you in some serious legal hot water, so it’s best not to.
   
   
8. Frequent Quality Content
   It is important that you not only publish content frequently, but that you publish content that is of a high quality. This will ensure that your visitors see you as an authority on a particular subject or within a particular industry and return to you for advice.
   
   
9. Be Nice & Friendly
   Remember that you were a beginner once, so don’t make fun of other beginners. Instead, you should help them to grow and learn in website design – these people are your peers and may come up with some innovative new ideas in the future. 

We hope that our above list of tips has enabled you to get a handle on the website design process. Whether you’re joining an existing company, starting out freelance or you’ve been put in charge of your company’s website, we’re sure that the above tips will be more than enough to see you on your way.