Bread and butter layouts

When we're designing a layout for a web page, there are a number of sections that we need to include. These sections can be broken into the following:

A web designer's job is to create a layout that keeps the visitor focused on the content while keeping it nice and easy to navigate around the site. Some examples of conventional or bread and butter site layouts are shown in the following figure:

You have a very short amount of time to capture a visitor's attention. So by choosing one of these basic layouts, you're using a tried and tested setup, which many web users will feel at home with. Don't worry that these layouts look "boxy". You can use images, colors, and typefaces, which complement the purpose of your site to completely disguise the fact that every web page is essentially made up of boxes.