Basic web design guidelines
The most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. You should choose your text and background colors very carefully. The web site should be easy to navigate, all of your hyperlinks and graphic buttons should be clear to your visitors. Navigational buttons and tabs should be not too small and easy to read.
The homepage is in most cases, the most important page and gets more page views than any other page. Start the page with a few words that summarize what the site or company does, especially intended for first-time visitors because they need to know about the site's purpose. Your homepage should offer users a clear starting point for the main one to four tasks they'll undertake when visiting your site.
Design your website in a way that your visitors can find what they are looking for in your site within three clicks. Include a Search Input Box, if possible.
Your web site should be quick to download. Visitors quickly lose interest in your web site if a page does not download within 20 seconds.
Graphic design tips:
>> Don't use textured backgrounds that make your text to be unreadable or font colors that are hard to read.
>> Don't set the text size too small.
>> Don't use all capitalized letters.
>> Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not centered.
>> Center-aligned text is best used in headlines.
>> Try setting link colors to the main color of your website (or blue, which is immediately recognized as a link). Underline links, if possible.
Colors and styles should be unique for each element. People should not be confused between regular text, links, important text and headlines. Use graphic design to enhance important web page items, but don't over-format the main content.
Don't use animation in excess, especially in banners. Frames should last at least 2 seconds. If the animation goes faster it tends to disturb instead of keeping the reader's attention.
Write descriptive window titles. The TITLE tag should start with a brief description of the product or topic of the web page followed by the company name. Add tags to set keywords and description for search engines.
Add an "About Us" and "Contact us" page. Sometimes people do need details about who you are and how they can contact you. Good corporate information is important to increase a new or lesser-known company's credibility and contact information is vital for feedback and to keep in touch with your website visitors.