27- Page Template and excessive graphics

Here i am not asking you not to use graphics, they are probably the number one beauty factor of you page layout and design, but i would advise you to break images into smaller ones and make them connected by setting absolute widths to the tables containing them, making them appear as one unit.

Lets take buildguide as an example. The largest image on any webpage (image that has to do with the design) is the logo (you can see on the upper right corner) And the navigation buttons are made separately and then lined up in front of each other, rather than using one big navigation bar using an image map, and you should also note that image maps are some of the worst graphics you can have on your website when it comes to speed and search engine optimization.