Guidelines for Web Page Development
Use of color: It's generally a good idea to have a lot of contrast between the background color(s) (whether you use a solid color or a background graphic) and the text, in order to make the text easy to read.
Insufficiently contrasting colors for text and background are hard to read. For example:
Light text on a dark background,
Therefore, it's usually best to display dark text on a significantly lighter background, for best reading and printing. This page, except for the boxes above, is an example.
Use graphics as they are useful, but use them in moderation.
Graphics that are large or complex may take a great deal of memory. Thus, a page that has too many graphics may load so slowly that a reader will lose patience and not read the page.
A page on which the graphics are densely distributed may be difficult to read, as the graphics may distract from the text.
More generally, the fact that you know how to create an effect on a Web page does not make the effect effective. Use a special effect to enhance your site, not just to show off that you can create the effect.
Proofread and correct. Look how speling erors, badly chose words, etc., can jump off the page and distract a reader from the information your page is designed to display. Remember that your page advertises. Many people, including potential clients for your business or potential students for your university, may use the quality of your page as a first impression of the quality of your product/education/service.
More links explaining the Web and how to develop Web sites: