Background and Text Colors

The color schemes express the characters of the website and make it unique and attractive. The selection of the set of colors for background and text has to be done very carefully. It is recommended to use the dark color versus light color combination, In other words, light text against a dark background or dark text against a light background is suggested. It would be a blunder if a background pattern that has both dark and light colors is used, as this would make it difficult to choose a text color that is readable against such a background. Background image or texture chosen should contrast well with the text color, so that it is easy to read on screen.

Selection of Fonts

One of the most important parts of a web page is text. It can make the page look very professional or very unprofessional. Consistency in fonts is required; In other words, using varied fonts throughout the pages should be avoided. The standard fonts used on the Internet are Arial and Verdana as they are most readable on computer screen and as for headlines Georgia is used most extensively, as it has a slightly larger display.

Formatting Pages

Layout of the page should be with tables, and the width should be in percentage terms (100% to window size) instead of a fixed number of pixels. If done so, the content of the page will be flexible even with changes in browser window size, without the need to scroll horizontally. Tables enable displaying the contents in sections like a newspaper. Links should be well organized, properly interlinked and easy to detect by using appropriate colors. Links should be underlined and a different color can be used for visited links, a link to the homepage should be displayed on all the internal pages. It should be ensured that there are no broken links simple text navigation links at the bottom of long pages should be provided, so that users don’t need to scroll up. Optimize pages to be viewed at 800×600 (the most popular resolution).

Content of the Pages

The content of professional website should be in bulleted or numbered list with direct to the point in short paragraphs, as long blocks of text passages can be boring for the reader. The intention of the web pages should be made clear. Top of the individual pages are to be loaded with most important and essential content with a brief header. This will quickly let the user know, your web page is the page what he is looking for, helping the user easily identify his/her requirement. A simple logo with captivating tag line on the top of the page acts as an identity of the website. Common names for menu options: Home, About Us, Contact Us, Help, and Products, a copyright statement at the bottom of the each web page are to be used.

Limit File Size

Web page size is defined by the total size of text, images and supporting files (including JavaScript, Flash, etc.) within the page to be downloaded from the server. So, the size of a web page should be kept small to open up fast. If the page has too many items to load and is slow to display, it should be broke into smaller pages and linked to a new web page, with link back from the second page. Limit the size of an image inserted in a web page. Large image takes longer time to display hence, the size of image is to be limited. Adobe Photoshop can be used to slice the image and call it in a table. Bulky contents such as video, audio, Flash animations etc, which slow down the display of the page should be avoided.

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The beautiful designs of website templates does not necessary make them professional website templates. At this point of your web design search, you should by now know that the looks of the website is a major thing but it is not everything. The looks of the website will become a minor concern when it comes to the other factors that are going to affect your website existence, such as functionality, readability, content and search engine optimization.

When shopping for professional website templates, you should look to see if the website templates are really professional! In other words, you should look to see if the website template takes into consideration all other factors of a professional website design.

The first major thing to look for is the theme of the template. Most of the website templates that are sold on the Internet are of a general theme. These kinds of templates usually look very attractive to you but you would want to know if it is attractive to your targeted clients. professional website templates do not only look beautiful but also have a theme!

Do not over look a website template theme, the theme of this template is going to present your website theme. The theme should match your business or ideas that are going to be presented in your website. If you are still confused, dedicate a couple of hours to research color representations, for example, red says stop and green says go. What does the website template that you have chosen say? Does that match or approach your websites theme?

Colors are good, but too many colors are annoying. Professional website templates will have fewer colors and a professional use of colors. Colors can distinct separate areas in your website and can emphasis the difference and level of importance of your websites content. A professional website template designer knows this fact and uses it wisely. If colors are only used for decoration, then the template in hand is not a professional website template.

Colors are not only found in text and bars, colors are found also in pictures, that also differentiates professional website templates from just website templates. The colors of the images inside your website should also reflect the theme of your website and they should also flow with the colors of it. Not only that, pictures in professional website templates are enhanced for users and search engines. Web surfers will run away from your website if it takes forever to load not to mention that your website has lesser chances to appear in search engine results if the whole website is made of images.

Professional website templates do not necessarily need to be search engine optimized simply because this is not the web designers’ job to optimize a website for search engines, but professional website templates surely must take search engine optimization into consideration; especially if the websites theme is informative or intended for content. To make this point clearer, when it comes to search engine optimization, it makes a big difference whether you have chosen your template to have buttons as links or images to act like buttons. Search engines prefer words over pictures, so again it comes to your theme and your priorities.

Readability, or in other words layout of a website template, is also a major factor when distinguishing professional website templates. When choosing your website template, you would want to avoid getting glasses to read text; you also do not want to get dizzy trying to find an important section that does not stand out in the layout of the website. Professional website templates takes the layout of a website very seriously and usually offers you few pages to put your content without damaging the flow of the design. You will usually find in addition to the main page, a content page and maybe some other pages depending on the theme.

Also, a website template does not have to be so complicated to be professional. Choose usability over complexity. Your client should be able to identify the theme of your website theme at the first glance and then easily find what he is looking for at the second. He must not feel at any point that he is lost, otherwise bye bye! See if the website template you are buying takes this method into consideration seriously. If you can’t see what you want from the template, your client most likely will not.

Choose a website template with familiar internet navigation system. That is, from your browsing experience on the net, where do you see the buttons? Most likely buttons are at top, left or right. As mentioned complicated templates are not necessary professional.

Make sure that your template will serve its purpose especially when buying a template for a system. For example: if you are buying a template for a shopping cart, you would want to make sure that all instructions of installation are available and error free. Functionality becomes a frustrating issue if you did not plan for it right. For this purpose, try to look for samples of the website templates you are buying, take the time to install the sample and see how it works. If errors shows up, see how easy it is to deal with them, then go for the purchase phase.

One more thing that should be mentioned is that some work will be required from your side after purchasing a website template. You will need to replace texts, images and information on the template to match your website theme. Professional website templates will come with all sources and software requirements to make the necessary modifications to the template. After all, you do not want to end up with a template that you don’t know how to use. Also, you might not be able to find a template for the exact theme of your web site, but something close. You should look at the things that you are going to replace in the template and how that affect the design of the template. For instance, if you are going to replace major images in the template, check to see if your images can fit into the color scheme of the template.

Do not over look a website template and since this is a one time investment, I think it is ok to spend few extra dollars to buy professional website templates instead of buying cheap website templates, then ending up with a cheap website and hence paying multiples of the price on the long run.

Hassan Sayed Webmaster at http://www.zeronese.net a place for webmasters to find everything needed for a website. Web design, professional website templates, web hosting, web directory, article directory webmaster resources and tools.