Let's look at what your user wants to see at your website.
1. No Flash
For many who visit your website time is money for you and for them. The last thing people need to see is a slow loading flash front page. Unless your flash page is very unique and interesting enough that it will hold their attention I suggest you loose it. For people on dialup, and yes there are many around the world, a flash page is a download nightmare for them.
2. Page Load Time
There is nothing worse than going to a website and waiting more than 15 seconds for that page to load. Many of your visitors don't have the time to wait for a web page to load and nor should they. Timewise, many people will go on to something else if your page is slow to load. Ten years ago 15 seconds and more might have been acceptable but in this day and age of high speed internet this is highly unacceptable. Check this free site for help with load time for your website. Dcotor HTML http://www.doctor-html.com
3. Graphics
Do you hate it when your gonto a site for information and finding missing graphics. Worse than missing graphics are graphics that do not at least have an ALT tag which would at least give your visitor some idea of what the graphic was about. When you have ALT tags it also allows search engines to recognize all the content on your site. Make sure to use good keywords and use them often on your page, as it will help you rank higher in the search engines. Use the free link verification program at XENU http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html to ensure that all your graphics are loading.
4. Links Not Working
One of my major pet peeves is visiting a site and clicking on a link and finding it does not work. This is one of the fastest ways to loose a potential customer. Broken links are something you should be checking on a daily basis. This is your bread and butter and you can not afford to loose even one potential customer. Again, XENU at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html is an excellent free program to help you keep your website in tip top shape. Also note, search engines do not like missing links and you risk your ranking with them if your site is not up to snuff. Xenu will give you a comprehensive report that shows all broken links and their corresponding pages.
5. Making Your Index Page As Small As Possible
The old saying that time is money is never more true than when someone visits your first page. Getting it to load quickly is one of your main objectives. This mean you need to run your page through an HTML optimizer. Doctor HTML http://www.doctor-html.com, a free website, can be invaluable to you when it comes to shrinking your page. Your site will still look the same but will take less time to load.
6. HTML Validation
Validating your HTML will help your visitors to have no problems while visiting your website. With valid HTML, browsers will function correctly at your site and with future browser updates people will have a smooth transition. Tidy GUI is a great free program for fixing errors and reducing the size of you page. It can be downloaded at http://www.emailpromotions.net/download/TidyGUI.exe
7. Reduce The Size Of Your Graphics
The size of the graphics on your site, and these graphics not loading quickly, can be one of the major reasons for your page to load slowly and for your visitors to leave. Always shrink the size of your images and watch how much faster your website will load. Spinwave http://www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html is a free online cruncher that can offer a maximum compression of approximately 30%.
8. Your Visitors Browser
Not everyone uses Internet Explorer and that leaves you with the problem of making sure that visitors to your site, using Netscape, Mozilla and others, all see the same thing. Unless you ensure compatibility then different browsers are going to display things differently than what you designed or what you see. With some browsers some people may not be able to see anything on your site. To check your website on different browsers visit Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer at http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html
9. Contacting You
No website owner can afford to take its customers for granted. When they need to get in touch with you in order to ask questions, it is imperative that you have easy to find contact information. Nothing is more frustrating than having to search a site to find how to reach you. Your visitors are your livelyhood...keep it simple for your customers. It makes for a great relationship with your visitors.
10. Spell Check
Last but not least, check your spelling. No one likes to read a page filled with spelling errors. Most HTML software offers this simple service and it should always be the last thing your check before you upload your page.
Jean Sutherland has successfully run her own ezine for over 5 years and has a subscriber base of 35,000. Her ezine revolves around people doing business online and beside offering free software, it also provides traffic & marketing tips, informative business articles, free ebooks and computer tips for those trying to work online. http://www.emailpromotions.net
move out cleaning service Glencoe ..Does your website need a re-design? Here are some questions... Read More
Don't make a splash!Are you thinking about using a splash... Read More
Good websites stand out from the masses of boring, hard... Read More
Choosing a web designer can seem like a daunting task.... Read More
Projecting a professional image is paramount to your website's success.... Read More
I'm not a professional web site designer and openly admit... Read More
If you'd like to create/maintain a website, having some HTML... Read More
I am constantly bombarded with all sorts of advertisements, single-page... Read More
One product, one long web page: this kind of web... Read More
While few companies can boast as we do that our... Read More
Does website design make a difference in how long people... Read More
There is unlimited possibilities when it comes to designing a... Read More
1. Size does not equate to competencePeople sometimes assume a... Read More
Ecommerce is just exploding right now on the Net. More... Read More
Don't knock it; "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a great... Read More
When considering whether or not to incorporate Flash into your... Read More
I have written before about long sales copy on the... Read More
So you want to build a website here I will... Read More
The trend today to overuse animation in a website's opening... Read More
A long, long time ago? In a galaxy far, far... Read More
The .htaccess file is a control file located in your... Read More
Designing your own successful web page can seem difficult and... Read More
We all want high impact graphics for our Web sites... Read More
There's no doubt about it - the first page your... Read More
The landing page or entry page of your visitors is... Read More
house cleaning company Bannockburn ..You have created your custom error page so now all... Read More
When you begin the design of your Web site, one... Read More
If you are trying to sell a product or service... Read More
ASP.NET is a new programming framework from Microsoft for developing... Read More
Creating your own website is great fun! But how is... Read More
What pages need to be included on your website? The... Read More
The top ten fonts for website design might change in... Read More
Whenever singer John Mayer sings his romantic song, "Your Body... Read More
As a webmaster you already know how important it is... Read More
For many webmasters the title of my article may seem... Read More
Are you in a dilemma whether to create a mini... Read More
This is a two-part article about creating a web site... Read More
The great debate: how much copy you should have on... Read More
For online businesses with their main goal of selling products,... Read More
Sin #5Poor Spelling And GrammarWe all make mistakes when we... Read More
A website should firstly be searched out by visitors before... Read More
1. Web site File Structure / File NamingMost search engines... Read More
It is common sense.The more time people spend at your... Read More
Every action has a beginning phase where you launch your... Read More
Whether you are planning on having a website built for... Read More
Back to basics. Forget funky design, good copywriting is the... Read More
Web Site Awards are given from other sites to reward... Read More
Dear web site visitor.I can't tell you how glad I... Read More
The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You... Read More
The following list of websites is the best compilation of... Read More
Web Design |