I ask myself that question about once a month. My website looks fine to me, but what are other people seeing And what are the Search Engines seeing Here's a checklist of 10 ways to optimize your website for peak performance: 1. Browser Compatibility The first thing is to look at your ...

Do you place back-issues of your Newsletter on your website There are two good reasons why you should: (1) It shows potential subscribers that you're serious about your Newsletter (2) Newsletters are rich in keywords, so it's a very good idea to turn back-issues of your Newsletter ...

Don't mess with those links! When you're designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state--blue and underlined. We all want to be creative and not do the bland, expected, normal thing. We want to change our links to red, green, yellow, even black--anything but ...

Never put form over function. Why Because it's crucial that visitors actually be able to USE your site. Everything you do must be designed to be as easy for the visitor to understand as possible. Everything should be functional first. If you put form before function, you sacrifice your ...

The great debate: how much copy you should have on your site, particularly on the home page Do you subscribe to the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words--and therefore images, not a lot of text, should be the main thrust of your home page Or do words have more power to capture ...

The first immutable law of effective navigation: It's gotta be readily available. Visitors should not have to hunt for your navigation or wonder where to find it. If you've done your job right, it will be right there when they are ready for it. The struggle in creating good navigation ...

Ever since I've been doing SEO work, I've always griped and complained about FrontPage and all the extraneous code it puts in the section of the page, etc. Then recently, I had the opportunity to visit with a group of advanced search engine optimizers, and I was shocked to find that ma ...

Once upon a time, in a small home office, a busy entrepreneur wondered why he wasnt quite as busy as he would like to be. I market my business as much as possible, said the entrepreneur, who has implemented many marketing procedures while running his business. Our entrepreneur, well cal ...

Did you know that nearly 20 percent of all Web users have some form of disability Making your site accessible for all is a matter of courtesy, is good business practice, and is not difficult, explains Robert Roberts, a professional SEO who owns the SEO Toolbox (http://www.seotoolbox.co ...

The Disability Discrimination Act says that websites must be made accessible to disabled people. So how can you check that your website is up to par There are a number of basic tests you can make to address some of the main issues. Webcredible (http://www.webcredible.co.uk), a web access ...

"Oh, my eyes, my eyes! What an eye sore. Quick, click away! Click away!" Suddenly I wake up in a cold sweat. What happened. Oh, then I realize: it was just a nightmare. O.k., I'm not crazy, and no I haven't had this dream before. But think about this: what would you do if you came to ...

Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your client (s). Excerpt from the book: Graphic Artists Guild, Handbook Pricing & Ethical guidelines Written by: Brent Parker These questions are a great tool to use when trying to develop your clients website. It gets down to the roots of ...

Effective navigation stands out. It's clear, obvious, and highly visible. You'll need to have a clear section of the page designated for navigation--one that a visitor will immediately recognize as the navigation area when he arrives at the site. Navigation should not necessarily be the ...

Navigation must be simple. Since it's the backbone of your site, it's imperative that visitors be able to understand it. Here are two tips on how to make simplicity a reality in your site: 1. Your link titles need to be understandable. Visitors need to know exactly what link to click o ...

One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation is consistency. Why There's a simple reason. Visitors want familiarity. They are more comfortable and more trusting if they know things are going to remain the same from page to page. They have a certain sense of confiden ...

Not all links are created equal. While all of your links may be important, you must sort and prioritize to come up with an effective navigation scheme. Here's what you should keep in mind: 1. Sort your links Your links should be organized according to their relationship to each other. ...

New Web sites are springing up online by the millions. However, when they dont reach a level of success, the Web site owners assume that they cant make money off the Internet. Wrong. The one thing that is important to know, however, is that you do have to work to make money online. Jus ...

1. Web site File Structure / File Naming Most search engines do not recognize beyond two directory levels. Make sure to name your files and directories with keywords. Dont separate keywords using the underscore instead use hyphens. File names should be not too long. 2 ...

My site is working fine. The links work. Content is added regularly. We have new features. Why does my company need a re-design Those are all great things. Sites should be updated regularly, have new features added, and by far have working links. However, as the site grows it soon outgr ...

Every action has a beginning phase where you launch your activity, a middle period in which you must sustain and develop it and a conclusion. Many people set up a website enthusiastically but then they find that they don’t have the skills or knowledge to maintain and develop it. So ...