Never use image backgrounds: The only time that anyone should ever see an image background on anything related to you, is if it’s on MySpace. Even then if your using your MySpace account as a business portal, then don’t use background images.

There’s a couple of reasons why background images are a no-no, with no positives to gain from them. First, background images generally scream ‘tacky’, and give off a lower-quality feel to a site.

What’s even more of a grievous offense, is that background images for a site slow down the loading of your site. Which should always be a top priority when coming up with a design.

Some, will tell you that there are times that image backgrounds are ok. I think that with the right use of color, and using images for separate sections of your site is much more effective.

Put a menu, and home button on every page: This might seem like an obvious tip, but you’d be surprised how many times I’ve visited a site with little to no options for navigation. These places, you click on a link and you’re at the page and only have your back button to rely on to get anywhere.

This is counter-intuitive, and can be a real detraction for users. So, make sure that every page you have has a mneu for navigation where users want to go. Then, make sure you have a visible option to return to your home page.

We’ve already discussed how social networking is become more and more important for the success of a website. Going into 2009, how will maintaining rank on search engines change? How will you be able to keep up?

If you’re to believe some experts, then you need to start focusing on localization and personalization. It’s not enough to just dominate keyword phrases, and rank. Slowly, you can start to see search engines adapt more and more to people’s location and preferences. For example, if you have a website selling video games and someone types phrases into Google about video games perhaps the top hits will be local gaming stores in their area.
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Find a balance between information on one page, and number of clicks for navigation: So much of what you need to do to have a successful website is based on balance. Finding a balance between style, and simplicity, ads and space etc.

When it comes to your website, you want to try and keep people from having to click around as much as possible. The less people have to find where they need to go, the more apt they are to stay and view your content. If someone is having to click around 6-7 times just to get one piece of informations there’s a good chance they’ll just go somewhere else.

Of course there’s a flip side, as you can run into stuffing information onto a single page. People might hate having to click through links, but they hate scrolling through a page just as much. A good rule is to try and fit as much information as you can onto two screens. Your users should only have to scroll the mouse wheel down and up one time.

Keep Your Text Lines Succinct And Columns Narrow: The way that the human eye works, everything is based on perception. We perceive information a certain way based on how it’s present to us. For example, some like to listen to absorb information while others like to see it.

When people are trying to look at the information on your site, it’s vital that it’s easy for them to take in. Something that is overlooked from time-to-time is the size of the columns that your information is displayed on. If you’re the owner of a blog this tip is of grave importance.

No one likes lines of text that take up half of their web browsers. There’s a reason that newspapers, and magazines have narrow columns with minimal words per line. It’s easier on people’s eyes to keep up with shorter and minimal lines of text.