When it comes to designing a website getting started is the toughest part. By following these few guidelines you'll be well on your way to designing a website that both looks good and communicates to your site visitors. Here's a short list of things if taken in consideration will put you on track to a great design.

1. Headline on top and center of the page. 

The best websites read like a newspaper. When people get to your website they want to make sure they came to the right place. For that reason it's important you put a clear and concise headline somewhere near the top and in the center of your page. Be careful not to cram the headline too close to the top where it could be mistake as an advertising banner.

2. Call to action above the fold. 

When creating a layout you'll want to make sure whatever the thing is that you want your site visitor to do next can be viewed on a site visitors screen without requiring them to scroll. A lot of people don't assume there is content below what's called the "the fold". The fold being the viewable area on your screen without requiring you to scroll.

3. Logos should be in the top left. 

You don't want to make the mistake of putting the focus of your website on your logo. Logos should be subtle reminders of which website a persons on and build brand familiarity. Putting the logo in a smaller size on the top left is common practice for top websites.

4. Navigation should be across the top or down the left side of the page.

If you're creating a website with 6-8 pages or less I recommend you put your navigation menu across the top of your page. If you're going to have more than 10 pages I suggest you put your menu down the left side of your page vertically. This will allow you to keep adding pages to your website without having to re-arrange where your menu appears.

5. Duplicate pages to make your life easier. 

Once you have a page you're happy with you should use the copy page function in WebStarts to create clones of your layout. This will save you the time and hassle of trying to create multiple pages that look the same. You can do this by clicking on file > new > copy page and then choosing to make a copy of your original page that you want to copy the layout from.

6. Keep your content readable. 

When you're designing a page you want to make sure you use a high contrast between your text and your background. For example if you background is black you'd want to use either a white or off white text. Better yet keep your background white and use black text. This is always the most readable.

7. Choose readable fonts. 

Don't get too creative with your font styles. The characters of your fonts should be easy to read. Also try to limit your website to only two different fonts. You can make subtle changes as to the importance of your text by using different font sizes as opposed to fonts themselves. Typically you'll want your largest fonts to be on the top of the page and slowly decrease the font sizes for sub headlines as you move down toward the bottom of the page.

By following the guidelines above you should be able to make a website that's attractive but also usable. Too often people who design websites either get overly creative and don't make their website usable or they fail to keep their site looking good with their content in line. Don't forget if you want to build a free website you can do that at WebStarts.com