| Describes in detail four basic but critical website | | | | two ways to create links within your text: |
| design rules. Following these rules can help | | | | 1. The wrong way: "For search engine |
| webmasters and novices build websites that are | | | | optimization techniques, click here." |
| effective and functional. 1. Easy to Read | | | | 2. The right way: "Good techniques for |
| When building a website, the first thing you need to | | | | search engine optimization are important to use." |
| be sure of is that your website is easy to read. | | | | Using link text (anchor text) that describes what the |
| When you write content, remember that most web | | | | link is about is the best way. Search engine web |
| site visitors don’t read every word of a page | | | | crawlers (programs that automatically index the |
| - in fact, they only scan pages to find what they | | | | contents of websites) visit your site, they |
| want. | | | | read links. Spiders can index descriptive links |
| Break up Your Content | | | | into a subject or keyword category. Spiders have |
| Break up your pages and use headers between | | | | nothing to work with when reading a click |
| major ideas so people scanning your site can find | | | | here until it reaches the linked page. |
| what they want quickly. Use meaningful headers | | | | This is Cross Linking — use it as much as |
| between each paragraph or major idea — this | | | | possible when it makes sense to do so when writing |
| helps with SEO. Headers should be created with the | | | | your content. 3. Consistent Design |
| through tags for SEO. Always use good writing | | | | At most, one or two layouts should be used in your |
| structure. Additionally, avoid long paragraphs that | | | | site design. As a reader browses your site, they |
| run on. You should break up any long paragraphs. | | | | should be able to get used to looking in the same |
| Color and Fonts | | | | place for your navigation, for your sub-navigation and |
| To help readability, use high contrast colors between | | | | for your content. That’s all there is to say |
| font and background. Black text against a white | | | | about that. 4. Lower Page Weight is Better |
| background may seem stark, but it is very readable. | | | | Page weight is the total size of a page on your site |
| To make a website easy on the eyes, try an | | | | in bytes — code, text and images. Your |
| off-white background and a dark gray (almost black) | | | | site’s page weight makes a big difference to |
| text color. | | | | your viewers. Lighter page weight is better for your |
| Things to avoid with content color: | | | | readers because the page will download faster. The |
| - Avoid vibrant background colors like purple or | | | | faster a page downloads, the faster they will get to |
| yellow. Such back colors make text difficult to read. | | | | the content. |
| - Avoid using an image behind your text. | | | | What is Means to be Light |
| - Avoid using bright text colors on bright | | | | - No large images. |
| backgrounds. | | | | - Fewer images are better. |
| Fonts Matter | | | | - Optimize images for the web at no more than 72 |
| One simple statement covers the font issue: | | | | dpi |
| Simple fonts are the best; the more fancy the font, | | | | - Use as small an image dimension as possible for the |
| the harder it is to read. | | | | given design. |
| Since many browsers only have the standard font | | | | - Use a table td bgcolor attribute or a |
| set, use standard fonts. In reality, there is no | | | | background-color style attribute for solid color |
| standard, but there are certain fonts that are | | | | backgrounds. |
| installed on most browsers. These include Arial, | | | | - Make gradients horizontal or vertical (not diagonal) |
| Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman. Your | | | | so that you can use a small image strip and |
| readers will see something different than you see if | | | | repeat it. |
| you use other fonts. | | | | How Heavy Should a Web Page be? |
| Standard Compliant Browser for Development | | | | Certain studies show that 64K is a good maximum |
| When developing and testing your site, use a | | | | webpage size. 64K is a maximum, however it is still, in |
| Standards compliant browser like FireFox. If you | | | | my opinion, really big! The smaller the page, the |
| develop your site to be standards compliant, it will | | | | better. 25K is good, 15K is even better. There is a |
| work in most browsers, including MS Internet | | | | balance between design and function. It is a good |
| Explorer (IE). It is recommended that you test | | | | idea to focus more on function. |
| your site using the latest and last browser versions | | | | Try putting pages on your web host server as you |
| of IE (IE6 and IE7). To run multiple versions of IE | | | | build your site so you can test it as you go. For |
| on the same machine, TredoSoft has a free installer | | | | pages online, you can test the page weight at to |
| that will install multiple versions of IE. It works great! | | | | be sure you are on track. |
| 2. Simplify Navigation | | | | Ways to make pages lighter: |
| The menus and links make up the navigation that the | | | | - Use linked style sheets |
| visitor uses to get from page to page in a site. | | | | - Use s instead of s where possible |
| Always plan a site around how people will get from | | | | - Use simple repeating backgrounds for effect |
| page to page. A visitor to your site should be able | | | | Summary |
| to get to what they want within three clicks of their | | | | Visitors to your website should be able to find what |
| mouse. | | | | they are looking for within about three clicks. |
| Multiple navigation points makes it easy to find things. | | | | Making a site easy to read with consistent page |
| Repeat the top menu and at the bottom. Also create | | | | design, and easy to navigate will make it easy to find |
| a left or right menu. | | | | information. You will be on the way to building a |
| Using links within your text to other areas on your | | | | readable and hopefully successful website if you |
| site. You can create links so that they are good for | | | | follow these principals. |
| search engine optimization (SEO). There are generally | | | | |