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Let the KISS principle guide
you at all times! (Keep it Simple, Simon.)
After you learn how to construct pages, here's
tips on making your Web pages more compelling and easy on the browser:
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Keep your home page small in terms of text and
graphics (less than 40k). Be careful about overdoing it -- start small
with an eye on the future. |
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Use graphics only when necessary, and use the
same general style throughout your site. |
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Put standard navigation icons on each page to
make it easy for visitors to move Forward, Back, and Home without having
to use the back button. |
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Check the links on your pages constantly --
bad links are "stale" links. |
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Update your pages as often as possible. This
keeps people coming back. Create reasons for people to come back. |
Your home page don't have to be flashy. Make it
simple and to the point so people know what you have to offer. Use simple
words and short paragraphs so the reader will stay interested. The main
purpose of your Web site is to keep everyone interested. Keeping sentences
short and precise and ghost your home page (the same background) to the
other sub pages will make for a great Web page.
 Spell
Checking and Proofing
Nothing says unprofessional quite like a misspelled
word. Spell check each of your Web pages. Have someone else proofread your
pages before you upload them to your server because many times when we
read what we have written we over look spelling errors. Don't let it happen
to you.
Most HTML editors and word processors have spell
checking functions so take advantage of that and use it.
Alt
Text
Include alternative text for each image. This
is the text that goes in the alt attribute of the img tag. There are many
important reasons for doing this:
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Some software for the disabled uses this information.
If not done then you will loose visitors if the disable graphics. |
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Several search engines use text from the alt
tag while spiddering your site. |
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Surfers may want to click on linked images before
they have finished loading. |
Try viewing your pages using a graphics capable
browser with images turned off. It's also a good idea to test your pages
with a text-only browser, such as Lynx.
HTML
Validation
HTML code that fails to meet W3C standards is
much more likely to cause obscure problems. Remember, just because it looks
good in your browser window doesn't mean that it looks good in all browsers.
Be sure to view your site in different browsers to see what your site looks
like in each one.
You can use of a free online page validation tool
to check things out. See below for more information.
Link
Validation
Broken links ( linkrot) will happen to all of
us at one time or another, especially with external links. Nevertheless,
it's important to do your best to keep all links, internal and external,
working. The easiest way to avoid this situation is by testing links frequently.
You can do yourself or use online services and software to track down broken
links.
Referencing
Graphics
This is a mistake nearly every newbie will makes.
Graphics loaded into cache on your computer will display in your browser,
Also, you will see the graphic in your browser if its HTML path points
to your local hard drive. The problem with this is that everyone but you
will see a broken image.
To check that graphics are linked correctly, clear
cache, close your browser, open a new browser window, and visit your site.
Even then, the cache may not be cleared so be sure to have a friend go
to your site and check it for broken images.
Search
Engine Optimization
Look your pages over like the search engines do.
Have you included good titles, meaningful page descriptions, and meta keyword
phrases? Is the content of your pages optimized for desired keywords? Is
relevant keyword rich content near the top of the page?
Load
Time Optimization
How long it will take your pages to load on various
Internet connections? If it takes to long to load then you will loose that
surfer. Make your graphics files as small as possible. Some HTML editors
and validation utilities, such as The
WebSite Garage, will automatically compute download times at various
modem speeds. Otherwise, for a rough estimate, figure 1 second for every
1k on a 28.8 connection.
Text
Tips
View your page layout after changing your browser
text size setting. Its also a good idea to print each of your pages to
see how they look and make any corrections afterwards. If you are using
any uncommon font specifications be sure to test the pages on a machine
that lacks those fonts to see how your page may look when using those uncommon
fonts.
Web
page
A Web page is nothing more than a text file that
contains not only text, but also a set of HTML tags that describe how the
text should look when a browser displays it on the screen. The tags are
instructions that tell the Web browser how the page should look when it
is displayed. Browsers handle these in different ways so its a good idea
to use different browsers to view you webpages to see how they look in
each browser.
HTML
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. A
"markup language" is a computer language that describes how a page should
be formatted. If you want your webpage to stand out from the rest and not
be so plain then HTML is the language you use to do it.
Web
browser
A Web browser, like Netscape Navigator or Microsoft
Internet Explorer, is a computer program that does a couple things in different
ways: A Web browser goes to a Web server on the Internet and request a
page through the network and into your machine. A Web browser knows how
to interpret the language of the HTML tags to display the page on your
screen the way the page's creator intended it to be viewed.
Once you create your Web page, you will want to
put it on a Web server for all the world to see. Many services and institutions
with Web servers offer free space to post your pages. AOL offers free space
to their members, and many colleges offer space to their students. There
are also many commercial sites that offer free space. The only drawback
to these options is that you will most likely have to display the site's
advertisement banner on top of or within your page and most have pop-ups
after leaving every page so that is a draw back. Below are a few of these
free sites you can use.
Its best to get your own domain name and pay a
small monthly fee to upload your site to their server. Most professional
sites go this route. Its up to you as to how you will go about having your
site hosted but having you own domain name and a hosting company is the
best way if you are wanting to make money from your site. If you are just
posting family pictures so family and friends can see them then I would
go with a free hosting company but if you want to generate money from your
site then get your own domain name and pay for hosting.
Great Tools
Once you get your page on a server, you will want
to know what kind of traffic you are getting. A place like Show
Stat, Hit Box, or Site
Meter provides that service for free and gives you very complete
statistics. If you just want a simple counter on your page, FastCounter
is a good tool to use.
There are a number of tools you can use to help
make your site better. One of the best is the LinkExchange
Site Inspector. This free tool will check your site for HTML errors,
spelling errors, load time over the network, meta tags, browser compatibility,
etc. It will rate your site and give you a free report. It's amazing how
useful this tool is!
Another good place to go is SiteOwner.com.
There are five useful tools on that page that you might want to check out.
Reciprocal linking is an "I'll scratch your back
if you'll scratch mine" activity. The idea is to locate sites related to
yours and send them e-mail asking them to link to you. In return, you generally
offer to link back to them.
The best way to set up reciprocal links is to
simply browse the Web looking for related sites and send e-mail to them.
You will find that the response rate is perhaps 25 percent. But it can't
hurt to try, and the more links you have on the Web the more traffic you
will get. One link in exactly the right place can make a BIG difference
in the traffic that a new site receives.
| The following are resources
for creating reciprocal links: |
For lots of information about banner ads, see
How Banner Ads Work. The following links offer information on the advertising
programs of some of the larger search engines. Most search engines offer
some form of advertising -- look around on the home page and you will generally
find a link to information about advertising on the site:
Have text links on every sub page so people will
be able to click back and forth through your site, that way they will not
have to use to forward or back button on their browser. When you have a
link, be it text or graphics, always use the "text alternatives" just in
case they have their graphic option turned off. This way they will still
be able to see what the link is for.
The more graphics you have on your site, the longer
it will take to load and if it takes more than 30 seconds then you may
end up loosing someone because more than 30 seconds seems like forever
when it comes to loading someone's web page. You may only have one chance
at keeping the customer at you web site so make it simple and to the point.
Keep your text to 3 or less colors ( 2 will be
the best ), the more colors you have the worse it will stand out and make
your site look unattractive.
You have valuable contents on your web site, so
make it easy to navigate and read so everyone will stay interested, and
in doing so they will book mark your site for future use.
In my course "Making
Your Internet Business Succeed",
which is sent via email, will show you how to get the most out of your
Web page.
When you apply what is in my course then you will
be on the right path to having a great Web site that will bring you the
type of money you and your family deserve.
Please don't take this as anything other than
serious because if you follow what I have at my site and in my news letters,
then you will have your internet business up and running and be able to
make a very nice monthly income. The question is, do you want it
bad enough??? If you do then CLICK
HERE so you can get started. |
