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.
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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
