If you are a web designer or you are starting your own web page, read on for a few easy-to-follow rules on designing your website.

Don’t use a lot of flashing or animated banners and ads at the beginning of your site. There is a time and place for those, and the top of your first page isn’t it. There aren’t more things that are as irritating as seeing multiple flashy, bouncing ads as soon as you click on a link. That will often drive your customers away. There are some exceptions to this rule- if you are trying to sell animation or banner ad creation services, you want people to see a bit of what you sell.

Your site needs to be able to be navigated by most people. If a person clicks on your site, and they can’t find their way around, or find out how to make a purchase from you, they will probably get annoyed and leave the site entirely. You just lost a customer! In general, you should put your navigation buttons on the left side of the page because that’s how most people read- from the left to the right.

When a viewer looks at your page, make sure they know how to get to other parts of the site, and that they know for sure which part of the site they are on. Put a link on each page directing visitors to the site’s home page, or to related information.

Take a look at your site and observe its loading time. Webmasters can reduce the amount of time it takes for their site to load by not putting as many graphics on each page. Many folks are annoyed by highly graphic web pages that take FOREVER to load, because they want their information instantly.

Use a font that’s easy to read. If you’re selling a product that’s commonly used by the elderly, you’ll want to make the print larger so it will be easier to read.

After all, you wouldn’t want to pick a great-looking font that won’t work with IE or Firefox. Good luck and happy designing!