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Dos and Donts of Website Building

January 15, 2008

So you’ve got a good host, a catchy domain, and compelling
sales copy — your site should be making money soon, shouldn’t it?
Well, it’s not that simple. There are rules to keep in mind
when building a website, from design and layout to content
and back-end programming.
Here are some things you should keep in mind.

DO update regularly.

A website is an ongoing project. You want your visitors to
keep coming back to your site, so give them something to
come back for a promo, a story, anything to keep them
interested. Update them on new products or events.
Try to update your content at least once a month, and
redesign your site every year or so.

DON’T use flashy graphics.

Blinking text and animated graphics belong to your five-year-old’s
school project, not to your company site. Keep things simple
and professional. Use only graphics that supplement your
site content or contribute to the overall design. A short
promotional video is acceptable, but provide an alternative
in case a viewer isn’t able to run it.

DO include your contact details.

Even if you do everything online, people still want to know
they’re interacting with real people. Post a real phone number,
fax number, email address, and street address in your About Us
or Contact page. A P.O. Box number won’t do  it has to be a
registered mailing address. Of course, someone always has to be
available to answer calls and verify your existence.

DON’T use large files.

Large pictures and videos can slow down your site.
Keep your images small and at a low resolution. If you have a
large image, don’t scale it down with HTML — resize the actual
picture in a photo editing program such as Photoshop.

DO test your site for compatibility.

Your site will appear differently on various browsers,
and you want to make sure it’s readable every time. Test
your site on various versions of the most common browsers such
as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera.
To avoid compatibility problems, don’t use features that need
browser plug-ins to run.

DON’T steal bandwidth.

Bandwidth theft is when you post a file or image on your site
directly from another. It’s unethical because viewers visit
your page but use up someone else’s bandwidth. Some states
have even imposed laws against it. If you want to use an image
from another site, get their permission and host it on your
own server.

DO make it readable.

Web readers like their content in little blocks instead of
entire pages. If you have a long article, divide it into small
subsections and put one or two sections per page. Try to make
it so that they don’t have to scroll down to read everything.
Make sure there’s a menu bar and Nex and back buttons on
every page.

DON’T link vague phrases.

Make your hyperlinks as detailed as possible.
People have to know exactly where a link will take them; phrases
like “click here” and “this page” are not very compelling.
Instead, link a brief description (about 2-7 words) of the
destination or use it as a follow-up to the link.

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