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Plan, Plan and Plan, till you have a working outline
to use in the creation of your website. It will save you many headaches further down the
line.
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Use Title, Meta and Alt Tags. Very Important
Place your title tag directly under you html marker, your title tag should be
no more then 60 characters in length and should describe your website.
Meta Tags: examples; copyright, description, keywords, rating, language etc.
Use these tags as tools to increase traffic to your website. Note: These tags
will help your site rating in the major search engines. "to see example
of this right click on any white space and choose view source".
Alt Tag: make sure you add the alt tag to your graphics. Some visitors
have graphics turned off so they can surf at a faster speed. The alt tag
will identify your graphic in words for these visitors.. Go here to see
example of the alt tag
https://members.tripod.com/asthewebturns0/psptut5.htm and place your mouse
over the first picture on the page.
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Good Navigation: Website Navigation should be easy to
follow and easy to find. Many folks will not stay on a page that has no easy to
find and follow format. If it can be avoided don't place your links *only* through out
your page. Many folks don't want to have to scroll a page to find a link
to get to the place they wish to go. For a better understanding of FrontPage
Navigation and how it works,
click here for a full
explanation. This site is
external, use your back or reload button to return to this website.
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Fast Loading: The majority of folks are still using a Dial
Up connection. Keep your pages lean and mean! Test your pages for
loading speed. ( here's a few links for this purpose;
http://www.echoecho.com/tooldropdown.htm ,
http://watson.addy.com/ Try to keep your pages under 30 seconds!
Smaller if possible. Keep the graphics to a minimum, especially on your
home page. A Few well placed graphics can make a website look both
professional and keep your site loading fast, and your viewers coming back.
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Don't over do it!!! Don't try placing everything on your
home ( Index page)... Keep it short and to the point. a good example is
http://apassionforpainting.tripod.com Your Home "Index" page should
emphasize what your site is all about.
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Think of others when you design-plan your site. Use
Java Scripts sparingly. Many folks turn off there java script, so make
sure to put a text link for those that can't view Java. *
As you see provided on each page in
this website.*
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If your site is a large one a search feature and/or site
map is a must.
Folks will go else where if they can't find what they want in a timely manner. *
You can easily make a site map in
FrontPage, click File, new, page, table of contents, save and customize if you
need to. Or you can click insert, web components, table of contents, and
follow the FrontPage prompts.*
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Make sure all your hyperlinks and graphics work.
Nothing is more irritating then to enter a site and find things all messed up.
Make it easy to view - find what is expected so folks can easily move freely
to and from the material needed. See Lesson 10
Note: make sure you set your link colors. Visited, active should be
different colors. This way your site visitors can see where they have been
and where they wish to go. Don't forget to set your background color as well.
Make sure to spell check your page then save.
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Add a feedback form or a way for your viewers to contact
you.
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Resolution for your website: Many folks still use small
monitors. A good rule of thumb is to create your site for a resolution of
800 x 600. So all can view your site with out having to scroll from left
to right. See Lesson 2 for how to accomplish
this. Note: Use a liquid site format, so the page will properly resize to the
visitors display.
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Make sure you have NO active home link on your home
"index" page. It's redundant. Then make sure you place a link back
to your home page from your other pages.
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BACK UP EVERYTHING: This is a biggie, nothing worst then
working for hours, days or weeks on a website, then make a mistake and loose
your navigational structure or worse. So every time you make a major
change, add new material BACK UP your website, so you have a second copy to work
from in case of disaster.
