Almost anyone can create a website using the large number of guides and templates, and specialty software packages available.

However, without the right design, that website won't necessarily be a good one.  A readable, easily navigable website design is a much more challenging prospect.  If you don't have a good strategy starting out, your website can quickly become cluttered and difficult to use.  That means that even sites with good content might not get the attention they deserve - users just can't find what they're looking for.

If you want to make your website work better, a new, cleaner layout and more efficient load times are the key.  Think about the purpose of your site, and be sure that all parts of it stay on topic.  Putting together a good website design doesn't have to be a nightmare.  Here are a few tips to help you put together a great, professional looking site.

Any professional site starts with a layout that's clean and uncluttered.  You want to see a lot of open space, rather than dense blocks of text and closely spaced images.  Never clutter your site with extra animations or graphics, and be certain to use fonts that can be found on every computer.  Unusual fonts will be hard to read, or will be substituted with another font by the viewer's browser.  Design your layout based on the purpose of your site and how it will be used, as well.  However, don't be tempted to use layouts that are attractive and artistic, but obfuscate the site's functionality.  If your users have to think about how your navigation works, it's time for a change.

It's also important for your site to feature a neat, simple method of navigation.  Many more artistic sites use design gimmicks, like a site that looks like a book.  While this is an entertaining visual trick, navigating it can be a real pain.  Never make a visitor search for information on your site - it should all be easily available from any part of your website.  Not everyone comes in through your front page, either.  Some users will come to a different part of the site via a search engine, or from a referring link.  That means that it's important for navigation to be accessible from all points. 

Make certain that important pages like your contact information, FAQs, and sales or shipping info are easily accessible.  They should be obvious to all visitors right away.  If you're a business, hiding vital information like this could be detrimental to sales.  Make sure that your products or services are the focus of a small business site, rather than allowing it to bog down with irrelevant information. 

Be sure to stay on topic at all times.  Your website has a particular focus, which you shouldn't muddy by including unrelated information.  This confuses visitors who are there for the site's main purpose.  Of course, you should feel free to create additional sites on other topics, which can be linked to your main one.  You can even use the same general layout and template.  However, they shouldn't all be the same page - delineate the differences.

Try for the shortest load time you can without sacrificing content.  Many visitors don't have the fastest computers or connections, and a page that loads quickly on your computer might be slow for others.  Optimize your graphics and scripts whenever possible, and avoid using too many of them if you can.  Remove all plug-ins and extras that aren't absolutely vital to the purpose of your site, and streamline those you can't do without.  Also, those using tables for design should nest them, rather than splitting and merging cells to create a layout.  When you can, create a separate table, instead of using one big one.

Strive for maximum readability by increasing the area available for content instead of letting your navigation bars, buttons, and other extras dominate the page.  You should always minimize extra graphics, animations, and similar items.  If you use video or music in your page, don't make it play automatically.  This can be annoying, increase load times, and clutter the page.  Instead, allow visitors to choose to activate the multimedia sections of your site.  Use a simple design that won't confuse your readers, and clearly label everything, including images.

Design for everyone.  This means paying attention to the fact that users will have many different screen resolutions.  Some people don't upgrade until their equipment stops working.  That'll give them a much lower resolution than visitors who are using modern monitors.  A page designed to take advantage of a larger screen will tend to "fall off" the right side of the page, making it hard to read and navigate.  Try to look at your website in all available screen resolutions before you upload.  Layouts that stretch to fit are a good choice for any site.

Different browsers are also a concern.  No matter what type you use, a sizable number of your visitors will be using something else.  That means having your site designed to be compatible with the latest versions of the most popular browsers, older versions, and more obscure programs.  Currently, most Internet users browse using Internet Explorer.  However, there's a fairly large segment of the population using Firefox, Safari, Opera, and other less well known software.  Look at your page in several browsers before you publish. 

Not every site needs to be designed for every user, of course.  If you're a graphics oriented website, you won't need to cater to users of Lynx and other text based browsers.  However, a site like Wikipedia would benefit from this.  Likewise, if the majority of your viewers keep up to date hardware, you won't need to design for the lowest resolutions.  It all depends on the purpose of your site and who will be visiting it.  No matter what your website is about, however, be sure to plan your design out well in advance.  You'll end up with a better site, and higher traffic in the long run.