When others don’t personally know you or your company, how your website looks can say a lot about your business to prospective clients, existing clients and anyone else who may see the work.

It’s important to make the extra effort to educate yourself about recent Web 2.0 trends when designing or re-designing you website in order to have it look its very best.

While designing a custom website, think of the page design as the framework or skeleton and the textual content and images as the finishing layers within that framework. Design decisions about the layout and typography are critical to the website’s success.

Consider the following guidelines for creating a clean, simple website:

Webpage Layout

• Allow ample space between elements
• Follow the guidelines for good typography
• Use headings, subheadings and bullets to separate information
• Minimize the use of clip art
• Use 72 dpi, well-cropped photographs
• Use color for a specific purpose — to direct attention, create emphasis, or differentiate textual content

Each element on a webpage should function as part of the whole rather than a separate entity. This can be achieved by grouping elements or by creating obvious similarities of line, shape, or color. The end result of a balanced layout is equilibrium among the various elements that make up each webpage.