Welcome to the Web - Rocketface(R) Workshop Webmaster's Tutorial - "How to Design a Website"


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Something a little different

Fine Tuning your Website
Final steps in the polishing-up of your website

Checking your website

You've organized your files, created the directories and uploaded your web pages. Once your site is online the first thing you should do is go through each and every page as a visitor would, fine tuning it and checking to make sure all the graphics are displaying and the links work.

Graphics and content

Put yourself in the shoes of the people who will be visiting your website. Be as objective as possible and browse through your site with a critical eye.

Do your graphics tie in well with your content? Are the colors displaying correctly? Investing in some good graphics program like PaintShopPro or PhotoShop will pay off when optimizing images, both for quick downloading and clean image definition.

See: Professional Graphics

Checking links

Broken links are the nemesis of the webmaster. Search engines hate them and your visitors will dislike them as well. Check your links often to be sure that they are working properly. Links can change and websites come and go, so be sure that your visitors are being directed to the information that they are expecting. If you have organized your website and recorded the content and links in your website journal this job will be a lot easier.

Loading times

Take note of how long it takes your pages to load; if it is over 30 seconds, you probably need to remove or shrink the size of some of your graphics. This is accomplished with the use of your graphics program. Excessive text can also increase the loading time of your webpages. You should always keep your text brief and to the point.

See: Writing for the Web

Use flashy technology (Javascript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation. Too much of this will not only increase the loading time of your webpages it will also become a distraction to the people visiting your site. These techniques are more useful for entertainment and are not very good for information presentation.

Navigation

Now look at the navigation system. Is it easy to find and to understand? Will it take visitors where they expect to go? Does every page have a Back, Next and Home link? These issues are paramount to the proper functioning of your website. Website navigation should be user friendly and prominently displayed on every page of your site. Navigation bars, headers and footers are ideal for this.

Overall website design

Once your website is online it is easier to see it as an overall experience. View it as such. Look at the overall design of the site. Will visitors know what type of website this is? Are the pages consistent so that users will always know they are still on your site and where to find the navigation links? Have a friend look at your site now that it is online and listen to their comments. Take any suggestions that they may offer seriously.

Operational elements of the website

Do your message board, order form, survey and e-mail links all function properly? These are the elements that provide for user interaction. Through these type of things your visitors interface with you. Here is where you will receive feedback, fill orders and exchange information with your visitors. Check them on a regular basis.

See: Connecting with Visitors

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Website Optimization
Optimizing Your Website	It's no good having a website if no one can find it. That's the bottom line. But the good news is that there is plenty that you can do to increase your chances of the right people finding you.
Landing Pages - What You Need to Explain to your Website Design Company	The definition of a landing page is simply "the first page that visitors hit on your site," so it is not strictly a certain page but any page that a user "lands" on. All websites have landing pages, whether they like it or not, even if it was not specifically designed as such.
6 Website Redesign SEO Secrets Your Developer May Not Know	At the end of the year, many businesses start to think about redesigning their tired old website to breathe some new life into it. If so, the first thing is to make sure you hire a design and development company that knows how to build the infrastructure of the website in a search engine crawler–friendly manner.
Do-It-Yourself SEO - A Beginner's Checklist	It is becoming more important for webmasters to have an internal approach and awareness of search engine marketing.
For SEO Beginners - Twelve Definitions You Need To Know	This líst of twelve SEO-related definitions in alphabetical order serves as a great companion for your initial SEO reading.
Most Common SEO Mistakes	Here are the most common mistakes people make which keep their sites from being ranked well.
Keywords Are It! Seven Powerful and Useful Keyword Marketing Tools	After years of running websites and earning a full-time online income, I am constantly reminded that it all comes down to keywords.
How to Begin Keyword Research	Keyword research starts with the understanding that finding lots of related keywords that deliver targeted traffic is the ultimate goal of any keyword research.
Writing And Optimizing Your Website's Content	Content is the messages and information that accurately and significantly describe your business or purpose of your web site.
Link Popularity	Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative.
Link Building Basics - 5 Easy Tips	Today building a website is so easy even a child could do it. The difficult part however is to get targeted traffic to your newly created website.
Content and Optimization	The content of your individual webpages determines how your visitors and the search engines se your website.
The Top 10 Tools for Monitoring the Success of Your Website	By monitoring your website you will be able to see how it is performing and how it can be improved.
The Search Engine Optimization Process - Beginners Guide