Image by Digital

  Web Site Design ©
   

Web Site Design Portfolio

I have been creating Web Pages since 1994. Below are links to a few web pages that I have created. Note that they don't all follow the tips given below, but are what the customer wants.
HTML Software Resources
Web Site Design Tips
  • When designing a web site, always keep in mind the web site visitor and the search engines. If a visitor has to wait too long for a page to download, or a search engine can't properly index a site, it won't matter how beautiful and/or informative the site is, it will not generate the business needed to survive.

  • Surveys show that if a page doesn't load within 8-10 seconds you will lose 1/3 of your visitors. That means that a page should not be any larger than 30 kilobytes total.

  • Stay away from splash pages and flash intro's. Search engines can only index text; a huge graphic or flash intro doesn't give the engines anything to index. As a result, the page has almost no chance of ranking well. In addition, depending on how the links from the graphic or flash to internal pages are coded, the engines may not be able to follow the links to the rest of the pages on the site, which means your site will not get spidered properly.

  • Use as few tables as possible. When you do use tables, do your best to not break up a paragraph or sentence into separate cells in a table, this destroys the flow of the text and causes the words to be seen as unrelated fragments instead of part of the same continuous sentence/paragraph.

  • It is important to realize that engines do not see the pages the same way a visitor does. While the visitor sees the page displayed properly with all of the text flowing nicely, an engine sees only the HTML code behind the page that breaks up the flow of the text. With this in mind, I suggest that you use META TAGS with keywords that describe your site. Search Engines look at META TAGS for information about your business.

  • Always be sure to be aware of the impact that a particular design element will have on both your visitors and the ability of the engines to properly index your site.

  • Finally, remember that the customer is always right. You can give them the information above and they may still insist on the slow loading, pretty, animated site. In this case it is up to you to make everything work in such a way that the visitor has something to read while the rest of the page loads. If you use a "flash" type of introduction page, give them a link that will allow them to skip the introduction.
Top Of Page