Need to clean up your web site image fast but don't have a budget for a designer? Following these 7 web site design tips should go a long way towards scraping off the cheese and increasing the credibility of your business web site.

1. Lose the clip art, no matter how cute or clever. Use a nice-looking photograph instead. Preferably a photo that shows your product in use or a satisfied client, but even a well-chosen stock photo would be better than clip art. And animated clip art? Unless you're a real design whiz, just say "never".

2. Reduce the size of large photos. If a any single photo is over 350 pixels wide or 300 pixels high it's probably too big for your business web site. Hint: use your photo-editing software, not your HTML editor, to reduce the size.

3. Unless you really know what you're doing, remove any patterned web page backgrounds. Choose a nice solid color instead.

4. Remove these special effects (unless they're part of a Flash piece):

• text or graphics that slide into position
• blinking text or graphics
• spinning text or graphics
• page transition effects
• sound effects

5. Keep extra-large type to a minimum.

6. Remove underlining from any text that is not a link.

7. Use bold, italics, exclamation points, and ALL CAPS very sparingly.

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