That is a great question! Most think that a good website layout is having a graphic header, a sidebar navigation and/or a top navigation and your footer. I find this is not always the case.

I have discovered that a good website layout really depends on a few things, like what your niche is about. Different niches expect different things from a website, so consider your niche when you are designing your website layout what will be the easiest for your visitors to find things.

Not all websites need a graphic header, in fact, you might notice more and more websites that no longer use any type of header at all. Again this depends on your niche and what they expect, it's not what you want. So do some search within your niche and see what the majority of your competition is doing, and either do the same or be different.