Fundamentals of Good Web Design

Written by Ric Shreves


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6. Provide FAQs If your site generates a lot of questions, has complex content systems, you should include an FAQ that provides answers torepparttar most common issues. Trust us, this feature will save you AND your users time.

7. Strive for Compelling Content O.K., so this isn’t exactly a true “design” point, it still must be mentioned: You must give users a reason to return.

8. Insist on Quick Access Building a page that looks good and loads quickly is notrepparttar 132426 easiest of jobs. Add intorepparttar 132427 equationrepparttar 132428 labyrinthine nature of some ofrepparttar 132429 connections between you andrepparttar 132430 Web page server, it is not surprising that page loading times vary wildly. Still there are things your designer can do. Try 15 Second Rule: Ifrepparttar 132431 page doesn’t load in 15 seconds, it is too big. Tell your Web team to decrease file sizes.

9. Strive for Simplicity Make simple, common tasks easy to do. When long procedures are necessary for new users, meaningful shortcuts should be provided for experienced users.

10. Provide Feedback A well-designed site should give users feedback in response to user input, errors, and changes in status. The information should be communicated simply ,with an indication of what options are available torepparttar 132432 user.

11. Be Tolerant The site should be tolerant of errors and unusual usage. Beta testing ofrepparttar 132433 site should encompass anticipating a wide variety of erroneous or atypical user behaviors. While it is probably impossible to anticipate all possible mis-uses,repparttar 132434 site should handle mistakes with grace and, when possible, providerepparttar 132435 user with guidance. written by: Ric Shreves, http://www.waterandstone.com

Ric Shreves is an Internet consultant and author specializing in web technologies. He is a partner in Water & Stone, a web design agency focused on Mambo, osCommerce, and other open source tools. Read more of his work online at: http://www.waterandstone.com.


Importance of Having Your Own Domain Name

Written by Sumantra Roy.


Continued from page 1

4) Many search engines give a lot of emphasis torepparttar home page of a particular domain, i.e. other things remainingrepparttar 132423 same, a home page of a domain will often rank higher for a particular keyword than any other page. When you use some ofrepparttar 132424 free hosting services, your index.html page isrepparttar 132425 home page of your site, but not of that domain. Hence in these search engines, your site will find it very difficult to make it torepparttar 132426 top 20 or top 30, let alonerepparttar 132427 top 10 for some ofrepparttar 132428 really competitive keywords. Just think ofrepparttar 132429 amount of traffic that you will lose if this happens.

5) Some search engines are now refusing to spiderrepparttar 132430 web sites which are hosted byrepparttar 132431 free web hosts. For instance, if you have a site hosted byrepparttar 132432 free web hosts, you would, until recently, have gotrepparttar 132433 infamous error message saying that too many pages have been submitted from your site if you tried to submit your site to AltaVista. While AltaVista now says that "your URL has been submitted for processing" if you try to submit your site, rest assured that it will not spider any site belonging to many ofrepparttar 132434 free web hosts even though it says that your site has been accepted. Can you afford that?

6) When your site is hosted by some ofrepparttar 132435 free web hosts, you will find it very difficult to get it listed in a major directory like Yahoo!. Although Yahoo! will never admit that it won't add a commercial site which is being hosted in one ofrepparttar 132436 free web hosts, in practice, it will be a miracle if you can get your site listed by Yahoo!!. Listing your site with Yahoo! is difficult enough even when you have your own domain. Don't make your task more difficult than what it needs to be.

If you do not currently have a domain name, are you convinced that you need one right now? The small fee that you pay per year for your own domain name is peanuts compared torepparttar 132437 benefits that you get. You can check outrepparttar 132438 availability of domain names and register new domains at: http://the-easy-way.com/webhosting.html



rticle by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected and recognized search engine positioning specialists on the Internet. For more articles on search engine placement, subscribe to his 1st Search Ranking Newsletter by sending a blank email to going to: http://the-easy-way.com/newsletter.html


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