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If you want to create a website of your own then you must be geared with the basic knowledge first. As it's not simple to successfully build a website, you must make sure that you are at least aware of its fundamentals. Here are some web design essentials to help you out:

"Your website must have something valuable to offer

Though this doesn't directly relate to design, it's in fact more important than web design. When you make a website you must guarantee that you offer your visitors something worth their time. This should be your initial step in building a site. Focus on the content before moving on to how it should look.

"Don't distract your visitors

Animations, sounds and pop-up windows are distracting. Put your visitor's interest first before yours. Just imagine how can anyone concentrate on your site when there are things flying or popping around the page?

"Never use image backgrounds

Using image backgrounds is a sign of being an "amateur" website builder. When you create a website, employing an image as a background is quite sloppy. Just try to think if there's a professional website that uses image backgrounds. There is none. Respected sites like Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, or any others do not.

"Use contrasting colors, simple backgrounds, and large text

Why? This is to make your text easy to read. Apparently, it's quite difficult to read light text on a light background, or dark text on a dark background right? Also, be aware that some color combinations don't work. As readability of text is a crucial element to consider if you want to create a website, ensure to make the text large enough to be read as well.

"Test if everything works

Of course all your efforts to create a website will be put to waste if it doesn't work. So make sure every element in your site works. Check whether or not all the images appear correctly, and all the links are working. Try the uploaded site yourself.