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Top 10 Tips For Making The Best Web Site Ever!
- Correct design according to W3C standards
- Accurate meta title, keyword and description
- Easy to navigate
- Easy on the eyes/appealing
- Accessible to as many people as possible
- Loads quickly
- Original, useful content
- Know your audience
- Credibility
- Frequent updates
The Webmaster Biz - Introduction to the Basics
You might ask why is it necessary to put the top 10 tips of making the best site ever as the first thing for all aspiring webmasters and mistresses going into this business. The reason is simple, you want to make a site that people will not only like, but want to come back and tell all their friends about it. Anyone can throw up a site, but there are many sites indeed that look like vomit.
1. Why should you aspire to W3C standards? Exactly what is the W3C? The World Wide Web Consortium, otherwise known as W3C is made up of many pioneers who have been behind the many changes of the world wide web. It started as a way to streamline wayward pages so that every browser could have a standard set of codes it could read. By doing this it would create stable pages that would look pretty much the same in any browser. In the old days, bad code ran amok...it still does. Browsers used to be more forgiving of mistakes, but you cannot rely they will now understand what you meant. Good code means a good site that people will see in just about any browser. Good code also will make your site easy to be picked up by search engines and that's a good thing.
2. There is more to your site than just the body code. Many search engines send out spiders that read your head code. Within the head code, you should always include a title, keyword and description. That is because some search engines will use this information when they list your site. Be accurate about what you have on your page, but at the same time, stand out from the crowd. If you lie in your tags because you think more people search for those things, they will be so upset when they see your page is not like described...another disgruntled surfer annoyed by search engine spam.
3. Easy to navigate sites are a must. In general, if a person has to click more than 3 links to get to the information they want, they lose interest in your site and go elsewhere. To make a site easy to navigate, always plan a map of your site to make sure you have it indexed from the most important directories to the main pages to the categories within that page. Place your links on the top or the side in alphabetical, numerical, or logical order.
4. If you really want to have people stay on your site longer than a second, make sure it is something that is universally appealing. Shocking colors, drastic color clashes, mismatched color schemes can make whatever you had to say on that page so hard to read that it might not be worth it for your surfer. Avoid too many distractions like overdoing the images and allow "whitespace" so things don't look crammed from end to end...let your page flow!
5. Why should you care about accessibility? If you are only doing a personal web site that you only want a few people will see, it won't matter much. However, the web is accessible to just about everyone with differing abilities and ways to access the site. If you run a business or government site in an EU nation, Canada or US, you are expected to have your site live up to standards where some surfers may have visibility issues, hearing issues, inability to use a mouse, and other difficulties you might take for granted. Correct W3C standards will make it so the most people can see and use your site, but you also have to go the extra steps to make sure it also addresses other issues to include as many people as possible. You won't be able to satisfy everyone's needs all the time, but if you make the effort people will appreciate it.
6. How did you log on to the Internet today? Cable modem or 14k dial up modem? Granted, most people are not using the dinosaurs of technology, there still are people out there who do. There are a lot of people who use dial up to access the Internet and some of them are still even charged by the minute. For those people, time matters. The quicker it takes for your page to load, the happier they will be. Of course, if you are planning a site that involves gaming or things that are expected to use up quite a bit of broadband space to access, those on dial up are not typically going to be your customers. Always play the rules to suit your particular audience.
7. Be fresh and original in your work. Don't copy other people's work. It is copyright infringement and could get you sued and your site shut down. It will also get you banned or at least penalized from search engines. Write about what you know. That is always the safe course to make sure your work is fresh and original. Don't throw up something that your surfer, who is looking for information, has already seen verbatim on 10 other web sites.
8. Know your audience. It is hard to create a web site unless you know who you are trying to reach in the first place. How you write to a child is different from how you would write to a teen or older person. If you are speaking to a niche, know how that niche speaks among itself. Do a bit of research on your audience so you can cater to their needs and write suitable articles for their entertainment. Make it even more exciting and create an interactive site to let them discuss what you have put out among themselves. That will give you a better chance to know them and what they want.
9. Be credible. If you have a high school education, don't try and show off using fancy words you don't normally use to make it seem as if you know what you are talking about. Chances are someone who does know what they are talking about will catch you in the act and your credibility is ruined. Be real when you write for your site. Stay with what you know. Use your own words. Back up all your facts. If your surfers feel your information is not something you pulled out of your backside, they will almost always quote and link to your site...and that's a good thing.
10. Frequent updates are for your surfers as well as for the search engines. Static sites with the same information that never changes will get visited, but only long enough to get the information needed and then they are off. Search engines tend to list sites that never change in the back pages to make room for the newer information on the keyword at hand.