20 website tips
Note: these tips are listed in no particular order.
1)
Make sure that all your visitors can see your site correctly. "Best
viewed on Internet Explorer, 1024 x 768", for example, is a no-no. Who will
switch browser to go on your site? Nobody. Visitors will just click the red X.
Check out this site: http://www.browsershots.org to see if your site works well
on Firefox, Explorer, Safari, etc.
2)
Use all the resources available. No money to buy Photoshop,
Paint Shop Pro, FTP software, HTML editor, etc.? Tired of 30 days trials?
It's not a big deal! The free alternatives below should satisfy you.
3)
Blog regularly. There's nothing more boring than a dead site, even if
you have great content. You don't have to blog everyday, once a week is fine.
4)
Experiment and learn. You can always learn something new! Read some
tutorials, even professionals do so, because there is always place for
amelioration. Don't be afraid to experiment new techniques. Imagination and
experimentation are the key to originality. Dare to try something new!
5)
When you comment on a site, take time to read the blog properly. Give
your opinion on the main subjects or things that made you react. It's generally
very appreciated and you'll get a nicer comment in return. You'll develop better
relations with other web-designers.
6)
Avoid advertising or make sure that it doesn't disturb the visitor.
A small banner on your sidebar is ok, but pop-ups are very annoying, especially
when there is one every time the visitor clicks on a page. Also, be careful about
your advertising, you don't want to link the visitor to a red site…
7)
Use proper grammar. A couple of mistakes here and there is acceptable, but
make sure that it doesn't bother the reader. Avoid slang, full sentences in
capitals, MSN language and swearing. Don't use too many exclamation or interrogation
marks to express something, one is fine. You could also use smileys instead.
Try to use adequately punctuation marks.
8)
Make your blogs interesting. Visitors don't really care about what you
ate for breakfast or about all your updates… Try to find a style that suits your
personality: sarcastic, realist, a bit dramatic, funny, etc. What makes a blog
unique is the person beyond it, so don't try to copy other writing styles. Also,
quality is better than quantity.
9)
Be mature and respectful. Don't leave rude and anonymous messages on
other sites, leave constructive comments with your site instead. That way, the
other web-designers will probably take your advice in consideration and thank you,
instead of banning your IP and deleting your comment. Also, don't put a wall of
shame on your site. Try to email the stealer privately and ask him to remove the
stolen material. Note down his site somewhere and check back to see that he did
remove it. That way, you'll contribute to putting him back on the right track
instead of giving him hits.
10)
Always give credits. Giving credits is a must, otherwise you could be labeled
"stealer"! For a layout, tell where you took the pictures, the brushes, the
textures, the fonts or anything else you used, like a tutorial. Don't claim
anything as your own, you could be in big trouble.
11)
Avoid using celebrity pictures. Using celebrity pictures is a big
copyright infringement. The photographer should get money and he doesn't, if you
take the picture from fan sites, Sweet & Talented, magazines, etc. I hear you
thinking: "Yes, but everyone uses them and nobody ever get caught!" Well, how is
it original to use them, then? If you really want to use them legally, you can
use the pictures of www.gettyimages.com. For non-commercial use, it's not
expensive.
12)
Don't close your site for revamp. If you want to do a revamp, leave
your site accessible or you'll lose visitors. A first-time visitor won't come
back two days after to check if your site is open and if you have a new layout.
Instead, create a test page to try your layout and modify it. Then, just
copy/paste the new code into your header or index file.
13)
Don't follow the internet trends. Where is the originality if you do
so? Celebrity layouts, bubble layouts and scribble layouts are examples of what
everybody is/was using. To make your site stand out, try to find a unique idea.
If nobody has it on his site, it's not "uncool", it's original! Visitors prefer
to use a unique resource on their material rather than something that was seen
again and again.
14)
Make your site readable. Prefer simple and professional fonts that
make the distinction between uppercase and lowercase. Here are some of the best
fonts: Arial, Gill Sans MT, MS Reference Sans Serif, Tahoma, Verdana. Use
font-family instead of font, to make sure that your visitor won't see a default
font if he doesn't have the main font you chose. Also, make sure that the police
is big enough: 11 or 12 is perfect. Check if the color of the text is not too
light or difficult to read on the background.
15)
Don't use depressive or hyper layouts. Avoid very dark layout and
pictures, it will just depress or scare the visitor. Come on, you have an infinite
choice of colors! A colorful picture on a dark background is great, though. There
is an other side too… Don't use flashy colors, it will hurt the visitor's eyes!
16)
Organize your site correctly. Make the navigation easy to find and
the other pages too. Prefer a nice and clean sidebar next to your blog or a
navigation at the top of the page. Also, don't have too many subpages, it will
annoy the visitor.
17)
Prefer PHP to Iframes. If you have a Freewebs, you don't have the
choice, but if you have a subdomain or a domain, you should really consider
switching. The main advantage of PHP is that the visitor can go directly to a
page and still sees the layout. With Iframes, the visitor will be left on a page
with no layout and no way to go back to the homepage. Switching is easy and there
are a lot of tutorials!
18)
Use nice color schemes. Don't use too many contrasting colors, it
will hurt your visitor's eyes. A great way to make a color scheme is to use
this tool: http://www.gpeters.com/color/color-schemes.php. You type a keyword
(mist, blue, tree, orange…) and it will get the prominent colors from five
images from Yahoo related to your keyword.
19)
Don't leave fake comments on other websites to get more hits. An example
is "I love your site!" Take the time to look on the person's site and find real
reasons why you love her site. The owner will be most likely to comment back
if it's not a copied/pasted message that he saw on ten other sites...
20)
Choose carefully your site name. Remember that you'll have it for a while!
Don't use a site namer, please, it's absolutely not original. Choose a short
and sweet name or a name that means something to you. Explain in your site section
where does your site name comes from, if it's a combination of words or if it's
something personal, especially.
Copyright © Laurence, 2008, coded using
Coffee Cup
