It’s the start of the new financial year (at least in the UK) and what better way to start than create a list of what’s going to be hot in web design over the next 12 months? After all, now you’ve got some fresh budget to play around with.

At Fadtastic, we’ve secretly been trawling the best websites and breaking down what’s good about them all. We’ve conveniently made a list of these unmissable golden nuggets of advice below. Use with caution - you don’t want to be too hard on your competition!

Stock Photography

A business doesn’t really have a website until they have some original stock photography scattered around their site. But what to choose? Don’t worry, we’ve done the hard work for you. The following photos illustrate what’s going to be cutting-edge in 2008. Get them while they last.

The Handshake (example)

What says hello better than a guy in a suit? It’s corporate and yet friendly. It’s an introduction to a person suggesting a welcoming company.

Happy Families (example)

But it’s not all about the business folk out there. Families are spending more and more time (and therefore money) online. You need to appeal to them - what better way than showing them a family (maybe even with your product) that they can aspire to?

How can I help you? (example)

A website is often a point of contact. You need to show that by letting the user see the human point of contact. Why not show a pretty lady? With a headset? That’s innovation.

The Universal IE Hack

Another hot tip? Go on then.

Last year saw the launch of IE7. IE6 is still a widely used browser and IE8 beta is out of the starting blocks. A lot of IE hacks? Nope. Simply use the Universal IE Hack. Place the following code in the Head of your document:

<!--[if IE]>
<style>
html, body, * {
  display: none;
}
</style>
<![endif]-->

This supersedes all documented IE hacks to date. Enjoy.

SE-oh!

SEO? We’re experts. We foresee the following trends for the financial year of 2008-2009:

You’d meta add some keywords

This year it’s all about the keywords meta tag. There’s no limit to its use. Stuff it full of any word related to your company/product. I’d recommend 1000 keywords per page. As a bonus and just to be sure, insert the whole tag a few times on each page. Better safe than sorry.

Pagerank

We’ve heard it from Google HQ that PageRank will be the most important factor in SEO this year. Buy links from high PR sites. Check your PR every day. Don’t bother searching for relevant links - any link will do.

Go with the best

Make sure that you choose an SEO company that ‘guarantees top 3 positioning for any keyword.’ They know their stuff. After all, why pay for less?

Design

Designers? Pah. Why not design your own site instead of relying on your graphic designer? It’s just shapes and colours. Here’s this years hot hot tips:

New Year’s Resolution

You’ve bought your computer from Dell, right? You’re running at it’s default resolution? So must everyone else then, surely? Don’t worry about all this resolution malarkey - design for your own screen and it will work on everyone else’s. Save time and money with this cunning shortcut.

Templates

But there’s more ways to save money. Why not use a template and let someone do the design for you? The cheaper the better - they’re all just websites. Stick your logo on it - it doesn’t matter if it stretches to fit - and ta da, it’s a rebrand.

The user doesn’t always come first

What do companies like Apple and Google know about the user? They’ve got their head in the sand. It’s imperative that you think of advertisers, SEO, external sites and THEN the user. The user is used to annoyances on the net so won’t mind closing a few flashy ads and reading spammy copy on your site. Users don;t like back buttons so make sure to open lots of windows for their convenience. After all, it’s your site and you should ensure that their experience is how you want it.

Conclusion

Use these tips. Get rich. Send me some of your earnings.

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The posts Tips that Help You Attract and Retain Web Visitors, Well Designed E-commerce Websites, IEBlog : Microsoft’s Interoperability Principles and IE8, Data Visualization, 5 Accessible and pretty CSS tips, are related to this post.

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