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Ten Hints for
Better Websites
By Daniel Clarke (c) 2003
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
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
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
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
NET
MECHANIC
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
MULTI-META-MAKER
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
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
BOBBY
WATSON
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
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.
About The Author
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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