The ultimate goal of most web designers is to design web site that is fully functional, attractive web site that will convince your visitor to purchase or inquire about a product or service. Designing this type of site requires good graphic design, easy and intuitive site navigation, logical site layout and good web copy.
Web Content If you want your visitors to stay on your site, browse and eventually inquire or purchase, your site should be filled with useful, vital information. Poor grammar, incorrect information or useless information will deem your site "spam" and you will not gain the traffic or sales that you desire. Create content that is related to your product or service.
Cross Browser Compatibility This means that your site can be viewed (In an attractive manner) on as many major browsers as possible.
Good web design requires your web pages to work in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Opera and Safari at a minimum. Validating your HTML code will help but the final test is to view your website in different browsers running on different platforms.
Graphics and Photos It's a known fact that your visitors will be impatient. In a world where everything downloads instantly, if a visitor is asked to wait for a simple page or image to download, chances are they will leave your site and never return. Make sure that your photos, images and graphics are all the right size and appropriate quality.
Background Colors While it is proven that a white background is best, if you use anything other than white, be sure that your content and links appear in the proper color that is easy on the eye.