Introduction

Basic Design Elements

Site Elements

Overview
Navigation Bar
Home Page
Gallery Page
Hierarchical Pages
Bio Page
Contact Page
PayPal

Clients

Home Page

The home page of a website, needless to say, requires something different from all the other pages. It's where you have a chance to put your best foot forward. My website is complex and diverse enough that I decided to use simply an image of myself. But for most clients, the most important thing to display on a home page to a potential customer is your best product. A high quality image is important, of course, but the product should also be representive of the type of work you most want to emphasize. A few lines of text are often in order, but save the lengthy description for the "about us" page. The navigation bar should be simple and straightforward enough to make the user feel comfortable about entering the site.

Perhaps the most important item on a home page, though, is one that you can't see. All web pages contain hidden information called keywords that search engines like Google use to categorize the content of the site. Your name and your product are obvious choices for inclusion, plus anything else that might help someone performing a search find your site.