In the history of the world, few things have been as popular as the internet is today. No matter what your particular tastes or interests are, there's a website out there for you. And if you want to build your own website, the sky is literally the limit as long as you know a few things about web design. Here are some various tips on the topic to help you out.

Avoid using animated GIFs on your site. These were popular in the late 1990s, but newer technologies have replaced the uses for animated GIFs that were actually useful. Animated GIFs are low in quality and large in file size. Use static icons for page elements and actual video files for complex animations.

Don't use splash pages for your site unless required by law, and especially don't use a Flash intro. Most people just want to get to your content as quickly as possible, and don't care to look at useless splash pages. If you have some amusing content that you absolutely want visitors to see, integrate it into the homepage instead.

If you are not feeling confident in any area at all when you're designing a website then go ahead and ask for help from someone. You can either find help from a friend or from strangers on places like forums on the web. Just be sure you don't tackle anything without knowing what you're doing first.

Best practices in web design are constantly evolving. What was standard a year ago could be deprecated today, or even be completely unusable. This is why it is so important to stay up to date, and also crucial that you verify everything you learn. Make certain that the information you acquire is current and not outdated.

Make sure that you use the right anchor text. The anchor text of a link should clearly describe what the visitor should expect to see when he clicks on the link. For instance, if a link leads to your widget ordering page, the anchor text might read "Order widgets." Specifically avoid using "click here" as anchor text.

Have a site map. These are useful to your clients and the search engines, as they give a detailed overview of your entire website. It can be a guide for viewers searching for a certain part of your site, and also allow you to keep track of its structure and layout.

Make your site as engaging as possible, if there's anything you can add to your site like polls or links to popular sites like Facebook and Reddit.com then you want to do this. You want people to become interested with your site by keeping them interested with new content that they can grow to love as time goes on.

Task based usability tests are a great way to determine how effective the design of your website is. In general, the purpose of the tasks is to locate some information or functionality that is buried in your website. If your website is well designed, the user should have no difficulty completing the task. On the other hand, if it is not, the task can give you some insight as to which areas of your website could use improvement.

To help you attract a more professional crowd to your site, make sure you design your site with no spelling errors. When designing the site, utilize a spell checker and if need to, a grammar checker. If you have a site with poor spelling and grammar, people will not want to do business with you because they will think it is unprofessional.

Build your own website and leave your personal mark on the world is made easy as long as you can grasp the basics of web design. The more skilled you become as a designer, the better your site will look. Make sure you use the tips you've read here when you're ready to design a great site.