Don't use large images as page titles. This all helps with loading time. If you learn HTML, you can at least remove some of the excess text it generates. This will help, especially if you have large pages. Make it easy for visitors to navigate your site.
Most companies now go for menu bars at the top to save space at the side.
This will make it useful for people who become 'lost'. I like to think that throughout this time my web design skills have improved, as well as coding.