Ten Hints for Better Websites
by Daniel Clarke © Copyright.
Here's a checklist of 10 ways to optimize your website for peak
performance:
1. Load Time
It's probably the most important reason people avoid certain
web sites and for sure one of the main reasons for lost sales.
The generally accepted maximum time for a page to load is around
10 seconds. Here is a free service that tells you how long your
web page takes to load:
NETMECHANIC
http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/FutureQuest/load_check.htm
Your pages should be no more than about 25Kb in size. To
calculate the size of your web page, highlight the HTML
document, then click on 'File' and 'Properties' and notice
the file size. Then do the same for any graphics you have on
that page. Then add those numbers together to get the size of
that page.
2. Browser Compatibility
You may be surprised at how your web pages are displayed in
different web browsers or different web browser versions. It's
possible that your web pages may not even be visible in some web
browsers. Display differences can be the result of how various
web browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mosaic), or versions
thereof, interpret HTML code or handle HTML errors, screen
resolution, and the computer platform used.
You need to look at your website through other people's browsers.
I do this regularly and, on occasion, I've been shocked with what
I saw! Try this, it'll help:
ANYBROWSER
http://www.anybrowser.com
3. Browser Safe Colors
The Browser-Safe Palette is the actual palette that Mosaic,
Netscape, and Internet Explorer use within their browsers.
The palettes used by these browsers are slightly different
on Macs and PCs. This palette is based on math, not beauty.
The Browser-Safe Palette only contains 216 colors out of a
possible 256. That is because the remaining 40 colors vary
on Macs and PCs. By eliminating the 40 variable colors, this
palette is optimized for cross-platform use.
Here's a good palette of web safe colors:
WEB-SOURCE SAFE COLORS
http://www.web-source.net/216_color_chart.htm
4. Broken Links
About 4-5% of all links on the Internet are broken. A site that
contains broken links gives a bad impression to visitors and is
a frequent cause of lost visitors. Also, the major Search Engines
and Directories may not list your page if it has broken links or
missing images.
You can check your links with these free link validators:
LINK SCAN
http://www.elsop.com/linkscan/quickcheck.html
NET MECHANIC
http://www.netmechanic.com/maintain.htm
5. Meta Tags
What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the
"head" area of your web pages. Meta tags, for example, can tell
a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has
self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
The meta keyword tag is also useful as a way to help your page
come up for synonyms or unusual words that don't appear on the
page itself.
The Keyword Tag should contain about 5 to 10 keywords that
appear on your page. Never include words that do not appear
on that page - in some Search Engines your website will be
penalized for this. Do not repeat the same keyword - this is
called 'keyword stuffing' and is also frowned upon by the
Search Engines.
Separate your keywords with spaces (not commas). This allows
the Search Engines to combine your keywords into phrases, for
people who do 'phrase searching'.
Here are some programs that will generate your Meta Tags for you:
META MEDIC
http://www.northernwebs.com/set/setsimjr.html
MULTI-META-MAKER
http://www.multimeta.com/tools/multimetamaker.html
6. ALT Tags
What are ALT tags and why should I use them? You have a web
site. Your designer did an excellent job and it looks great.
You have plenty of images, including one containing your
business name, logo and slogan.
Though your site may look fine, it's not optimized to score
high with search engines. Since search engines don't index
images, they won't index any text your web site presents in
image format -- in this case the above-mentioned business
name and slogan. To fix this problem, there are ALT tags,
which are basically image descriptions.
Always add ALT tags to your images to make sure search
engines recognize all the content on your site. ALT tags
filled with keywords can also be used to boost your keyword
frequency and help you achieve better rankings.
Note: ALT tags also make your site more accessible to visually
impaired people using text readers. That's because text readers
can't read images, but can detect text in ALT tags.
7. HTML Optimizer
Another way to make your page load faster is to compress (or
optimize) your HTML code. An HTML Optimizer removes all blank
spaces in your HTML code and also removes certain unnecessary
tags.
The result is shorter downloading / uploading time. Pages
will appear in a client's Internet browser in exactly the same
way, but they will be about 20% smaller.
A word of caution: in most HTML Optimizers you will find an
'Options' menu that tells the program to ignore certain parts
of your code. Make sure your Optimizer does not compress embedded
script tags - if they get compressed, the script will usually not
work.
ADVANCED HTML OPTIMIZER
http://www.pcbit.com/htmlopt/?htmlopt
8. HTML Validator
Validating your HTML will help ensure that it displays properly
on all browsers. Most of validator tools read your web pages
directly from your site.
Always check the validity of your HTML. Some Search Engines give
lower rankings to pages that have poor quality HTML (such as
incorrect nesting of elements).
Here are some free online validators:
HTML HELP
http://www.htmlhelp.org/tools/validator/
BOBBY
http://www.cast.org/bobby/
WATSON
http://watson.addy.com/
9. GIF (or JPEG) Cruncher
Shrinking the size of your images is one of the best ways to get
a faster-loading web page. You can usually reduce a GIF or JPEG
image by 40% to 50% without losing any significant definition or
sharpness.
SPINWAVE
http://www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html
10. WIDTH, HEIGHT and BORDER Tags
The WIDTH, HEIGHT and BORDER attributes are essential for each
image that you have on your website. When you hyperlink an
image, always make sure that the BORDER attribute is set to zero
(BORDER=0). If you don't do this, your hyperlinked image will
have an ugly blue border around it.
The WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes allow your page to load faster,
since the browser knows in advance how much space the image
requires. To find out the width and height of any image, just
double click on the image file. This will automatically open
'Microsoft Photo Editor' - your image will appear, with the
width and height of your image (in pixels) displayed on the tool
bar.
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Daniel Clarke is the webmaster of TorontoBizGuide.ca .He wants
to share with other webmasters how to build a successful online
business. Subscribe for your free Newsletter at:
http://www.torontobizguide.ca
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