Website Analyst Newsletter
Meeting Your Needs With Excellence
Issue 5
April 2000
Editor: Lucian Millis, editor@website-analyst.co.il
Publisher: Website Analyst http://www.website-analyst.co.il/
Website Analyst offers free website evaluation, ratings,
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IN THIS ISSUE
1. Editor's Note
2. Is YOUR Website Ready for the Public? by Harmony Major
3. Websafe ColorChooser
4. Links of Interest
5. Pick Of The Month (HTML Clinic)
6. List Management
7. Contact Information
1. Editor's Note
Dear Friend,
We hope you find this newsletter of value in your efforts.
If you have any suggestions, tips, comments or would like to
see a feature added, please let us know. Thanks so much!
It truly does pain me to see the number of "business" websites
out there that just don't belong. If you conduct a search on
Alta Vista for "home business tips," I guarantee you you'll
see at least six out of the top ten listings that are breaking
some of the most important web design rules, and yet others
that wreak bloody HAVOC on your eyes!
You know the ones I'm talking about. They make you cringe;
they make you holler; they make you glad that YOUR site
doesn't look like that grade school horror show.
... Or DOES it??
And, how do you go about finding that out?
As much as we'd all like to think that our website design
skills are Utopian Perfection, in actuality, they leave more
than a little to be desired!
A website consultation is a very good and final way to make
sure that your website is ready to be released to the public
... and to eliminate the embarrassment that's sure to come
if we don't wise up and find a good service.
Make sure that you choose a top quality service to maximize
your website's potential for success. Here are some of the
things that any website consultant should be able to tell you
or provide for you when you request their service:
a.) Meta Tag Diagnosis
Are your meta tags formatted correctly? This will involve
looking at the meta tags on your web pages, and letting you
know if you have any errors that search engines will penalize
you for, (like if your meta tags have too many characters in
them, if you've repeated keywords too many times, etc.).
The consultant should be able to give you an idea of whether
or not you can expect a high placement in search engines
with your meta tag format. The meta tag diagnosis should also
include ways to improve your tags, correct any penalties,
and get you a higher placement in search engines if your tags
aren't already optimized correctly.
b.) Website Load Time
Do your pages load fast enough? Are your images causing
your pages to load slower than necessary? Load time is very
important, because a visitor to your site won't wait longer
than a few seconds for your pages to load. You could be
losing valuable visitors with a slow-loading website.
The load time check should tell you approximately how long
your pages are taking to load, what could be causing this,
and how you can fix it. This check should also include any
tips that you can use in the future to keep your pages
loading as fast as possible.
c.) Navigational System
Do you provide your visitors with an easy way to get around
your website, or will they get lost easily? A confusing
navigational system will cause you to lose valuable visitors
(customers!), and is imperative for a successful website. The
navigational system diagnosis should let you know if your
system is effective, and if not, give several ways to improve
it. However, there is usually at least one way to improve ANY
navigational system to thoroughly ensure that it's as easy as
possible to use.
d.) Content Value of Your Website
The "content value" is simply how valuable the content or
information on your pages is to your visitors. A high content
value means that your site is very informative, has fresh,
updated, and original information, and gives your visitors a
reason to come back. This test should also tell you how to
maximize the effectiveness of your website content, and
perhaps even where or how to find information that your
visitors will enjoy.
e.) Browser Compatibility
This very important test will tell you if your website is
being viewed properly in all of the major browsers. A lot of
websites aren't optimized for Netscape's browser, due to all
of the plugins that Netscape's customers may or may not have,
and also because of the unique way that Netscape can tend to
read your HTML code.
One small error that would be overlooked by Microsoft's
browser can cause Netscape's browser not to even display
your pages! The browser compatibility diagnostics test
should also be able to tell you how to properly optimize
your website for maximum compatibility in most browsers.
f.) Spelling and Grammar
Do you have a slew of spelling and grammatical errors?
This diagnostics check will let you know. Although you may
proofread your website for errors, it's very likely that
there are still quite a few that you overlooked. It's much
harder to proofread your own work. When your brain knows what
a word is SUPPOSED to be, it can tend to make your eyes read
it that way, regardless of what it really says!
You can help to eliminate this problem by asking one of your
colleagues or friends to proofread your site for errors
before you release it to the public. This will cut down even
more on the amount of spelling and grammatical errors that
you'll find. However, the spelling and grammar diagnostics
test should point out any existing errors that may have been
overlooked, and may even offer suggestions to correct the
errors.
g.) A Continuous Theme
Does your homepage have a myriad of different ideas,
concepts, or programs that have absolutely nothing to do
with the main focus of your website? Are all of your pages
related to one similar topic, or is your site a veritable
cesspool of unrelated ideas?
Most visitors will come to your site for one reason only --
the reason that you advertised to get them there! Don't
confuse them by having tons of unrelated content on your
website -- you'd be sure to turn them away.
This diagnostics check should tell you if your website sticks
to a constant theme, or skips from subject to subject.
It should also give you a few tips and pointers to get you
moving in the right direction.
Now that you know all of the things that a quality website
consultation will tell you, are you going to spend weeks
trying to optimize your own website? Or, are you going to
invest a few extra dollars into the success of your business
by hiring a professional website consultant?
If a professional website and image is important to you, this
will prove to be a very small and reasonable investment --
especially when you could potentially waste hundreds of
dollars later on down the road on tweaking and perfecting
your own soon to be "out-of-control" site.
"Simple freeware HTML application intended to take the pain
out of web color selection." You can view text in all 216
colors on 216 colored backgrounds, along with all hexadecimal
codes. For this site you will need a JavaScript compatible
browser. (via Briefme.com)
http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Erbrouwer/websafe/Data/Start.html
Learning More:
Using the Color Property
"Used elegantly and correctly, color will make your site
stand out among the millions of competing sites on the Web.
Used poorly, your site will be quickly abandoned by most, if
not all, of your visitors."
http://www.webreview.com/tag/2000/02_25_00.shtml
4. Links of Interest
Making a Good Impression
"Users judge whether a web site is what they are looking for
in a matter of seconds, so a visitor who lands on any page
of your site should quickly be able to form an accurate
judgment of what that page is about and what your site has
to offer."
http://www.webreview.com/2000/03_10/strategists/03_10_00_3b.shtml
Navigation Basics
"Visitors to your neck of the Net will want to know three
things: where they are, where they can go, and how they can
get back to where they came from."
http://www.efuse.com/Design/navigation.html
Meta Tags: No More Hide And Seek For Your Site
"Meta tags can give a little extra boost of visibility when
the spiders come by. In addition, depending on the content
that you place inside your tags, your ranking in search
results can be greatly improved."
http://www.webtools.com/story/html/TLS19991020S0001
TIP: Stay informed about scams, misinformation and hype on
the WWW. Pass some of this valuable information along to your
visitors. Get a free subscription to ScamBusters
http://www.scambusters.org/
Why Web Traffic Counts Are Not Quite Right
"When a Web page is cached on a proxy server (at an ISP, for
instance) and then viewed from the proxy server, that visit
to the site is often invisible to the original server."
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_4558.html
TIP: FTP uploading info
FTP is another piece of software that allows you to use the
Internet to download or upload files from one computer to
another. FTP Tools, Building a "Session Profile", Making the
Connection, Transfering the Files. PC/Mac.
http://submitplus.bc.ca/ftpinfo.htm
5. Pick Of The Month
HTML Clinic
The name of this site says it all!
The HTML Clinic tutorials are designed to guide you through
the complete process of building a web page.
Tutorials, Site Promotion, Help Forum. Awesome site!
http://www.htmlclinic.com/
Website Analyst
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Netanya, 42101 - Israel
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Thanks for reading another issue of WA Newsletter!