|
Webpage_Tips
| Webpage Tips
As a working mother of two, I must admit that sometimes my house
isn’t ready for company. Yes, you might trip over a few pairs of
shoes when you walk in and you might have to wait for dinner
while I dig around for some frozen pot pies and some clean
dishes to serve them in. However, as Web Mistress of
http://www.allparody.com, I’m always prepared to have company
come into my “home. Here I can easily hide all the dirty socks
under the bed but the only thing you’ll see is is my best foot
forward. When you present a website for your readers, you are
inviting them to observe your house to take part in your
metaphorical meal. To keep company in your house, you'd better
make sure that the coffees hot and the service is fast and good.
Julia Child did not become a successful chef without using her
tools of the trade to provide a visual, culinary masterpiece.
Brando wouldn’t have been able to scream at Stella without his
script, staging, lighting and the direction! Bill Gates wouldn’t
have been able to build Microsoft without being a programming
geek!
But where do YOU, as the novice, find the tools of the trade?
And are they expensive? The beauty and wonder of the web is
ANYONE has access to FREE you need to put together a truly
terrific website.
You’ve registered with the top search engines, such as
yahoo.com, excite.com, google.com. Your site is advertised in
newsletters, bulletin boards, guestbooks, link exchanges, top
site lists and more. Customers hit a key word and find
themselves at your site.
Now the question is, are they STAYING, or does your site become
a 5 second pit stop in the Internet raceway?
Terrific graphics are wonderful, but guess what? They are passé
on the net if they are slow loading! Did you know that
Yahoo.com’s splash page loads in under 6 seconds, even on a 14.4
modem?? There’s a reason they are so successful!
Let’s say you are the owner of JimBob’s Fishing Hole, selling
quality lures and hooks. A fisherman will wait patiently for
hours for a catch. On the net, the same fisherman will wait an
average of 8-12 seconds if the site doesn’t load quickly enough.
The average Joe doesn’t want to wait three minutes to see the
jpeg of that 22" bass you caught on Lake Kokomo! This potential
“fish” is going get away unless you masterfully bait the hook.
Gif crunching is the answer!(www.gifcruncher.com) A gif image
has a series of overlaying colors built into it, far deeper than
the average human eye can see. What a gif cruncher does is
minimize the unnecessary colors making your picture load faster.
There is a sacrifice of some quality in most cases, but isn't it
better to sacrifice a little than to whine about the one that
"got away"?
In real estate, the key to success is the three L’s: Location,
location, location! That same formula applies to your website.
Do you want your readers to find their information quickly, or
to roam around endlessly like the S.S.Minnow on a three-hour
tour? Organization and clear, concise links to your information
is the key to success. Your reader should always have an idea of
what they are getting into. Avoid at all costs undefined links,
such as “click here for a surprise”! If I wanted a surprise, I’d
go buy a box of Cracker Jacks.
Bigger IS better! Make your font size BIG enough for people to
read. I’d like to still think I’m twenty-four, but in reality
I’m forty something. Although still sexy, my eyes just aren't
what they used to be! If you make me squint and feel old, I’ll
go away. While incredibly small fonts can seem stylish and room
saving, they tend to annoy readers. Pick a safe font as well,
like arial or courier. Sure, your snazzy, unique EuroTrash#45 is
a beautiful flowing font. But what good is it if only 10% of
your readers actually see it, while the other 90% see a
generically ugly default font?
In summary, quick loading, ease in navigation and viewing,
organized links and of course, excellent content will get the
readers who do happen to hit your page to stay there, and
bookmark the page and return. Return visitors will make your
site a success. Once you develop an audience that comes back for
more, you have the makings of hit Broadway show.
About the author:
Angela Barbeisch, editor of allparody.com. Visit her at
http://www.allparody.com.
|
|
| |
| |
