Web site design resources and information
This page is aimed at giving help to people who wish to design their own web sites. You will find a complete set of web design tools and information, including search engine marketing tools to help you on your way. But if you have a question, please visit the forum on our 'flag ship' site Holistic Pages and ask away!
Stuff on this site.
- Choosing Colours
Choosing the right colours to complement your product or service can be quite important. Take a look at our guide to colours and their meanings. - The Colour Wheel
The colour wheel is a useful tool to identify which colours 'go' with each other. Find out its origins and how to use it here. - Colour Themes
We have put together a few sample colour schemes together for you. - Search engine optimisation tips and check list
- Search engine optimisation FAQs
- Web site design tips
- Web Design FAQs
- What is CSS
- Free templates
- Free Flash banners
- Free Webverts
Stuff on other sites
Recommended Information Sites
- w3.org
The be all and end all of web design standards. If you have html question you can't get answered elsewhere, go here. - w3.org validator
Good web designers ensure their sites will display correctly on all browsers. The best way to do that is write 'web standard' code. Use these validators from the w3.org to ensure your site is web standard.
Free web site design software
- Serif
Web Plus 6
A good software suite for designing websites. - Nvu
A great little application for designing websites. You can get this in a portable version also which will run directly from a memory stick.
Free graphics software sites
- Serif Draw Plus and
Photo Plus
Serif like to draw (no pun intended) you in by offering their previous versions of software for free. If you can't afford or justify paint shop pro, adobe illustrator etc., then you can't go wrong with these. -
Paint.net
We've not used this one ourselves, but part developed by Washington university and Microsoft sounds like it could be useful. - GIMP for Windows
If you've ever used the Linux operation system, then you will be familiar with this little gem. Still free, even though its on windows.
Free graphics / photo sites
- Morguefile.com
OK, so the name may be slightly off putting, but this is a great resource for completely free photos. -
Microsoft Clip Art
A fantastic resource for photos, clipart and other images and sounds. You have to be a Microsoft user with a MS office 2002+ product to download anything from the site. - Openphoto.net
Plenty of free images here. -
stylegala.com
Spruce up your 'lists' with some new bullet styles from this useful site. -
Some random dude
silly name, great site. loads of useful icons for your site. - Squidfingers.com
Repeating tile backgrounds for your site. - Background archive
A great place to find all sorts of backgrounds and images.
Although some of these sites offer free photos and images, it is worth checking their terms and conditions.
Free Search Engine Optimisation software and sites
- Link
Popularity Checker
This is a small application that probes the major search engines to find out how many people link to you - And its free! - Good
keywords
If you're struggling to work out the best keywords to target your site at, this great little application can help - Wordtracker.com
Find out how people are searching for products and services in your market. There is a free option, but it only lasts for two hours and is limited to 15 keywords. -
Yahoo! Search Marketing
Another great way to find out what keywords people use when looking for products. This tool can struggle to work during busy periods (the daytime), but don't give up on it - its an extremely good guide. - Keyworddensity.com
Keyword density is extremely important when optimising your web site. To low a percentage on your key terms will see you way down the rankings, to high will see you banned altogether (because of spamming). SEO professionals suggest a keyword density for any given keyword of 1-7%.