QuickStart for Newbie Web Developers - A Timely Guide for New Web Designers, Page 2

Custom Website Design

Clean Code, Accessibility and Usability, Presentation Tone, Color Selection, Built-in SEO, Professional Copy Writing and many other issues have to be dealt with from the onset.

Clean Code

Clean Code is becoming more important as the W3C (World Wide Consortium) suggested standards gain acceptance. There are many advantages to writing W3C validated code. More about the value in writing W3C validated code in Website Value Basics on our Executive Express Page. Use the W3C HTML Markup Validation Service to check for errors and error descriptions (free). Use the W3C CSS Validation Service for validating Cascading Style Sheets (also free).

Accessibility and Usability

The need for Accessibility Compliant Website Design is gaining increasing webmaster attention because many governmental agencies require their Sites be accessible to everyone, not to mention the fact that there have been a rash of accessibility lawsuits recently.

One of the best sources to learn more about Web Accessibility is at the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) website.

The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) offers the Bobby Engine, a free tool that analyzes pages for accessibility. Pages that pass are entitled to display the "Bobby Approved" icon.

Many Websites especially governmental Sites worldwide require that Accessibility and Usability Guidelines be met. Many informative websites provide more information on Accessibility and Usability such as Jakob Nielsen's useit.com . For USA Governmental Usability Guidelines go to http://www.usability.gov . Another good accessibility reference Site is http://www.section508.gov. Many more top Usability Links are located at usabilityfirst.com . Here is a good Accessibility and Usability Forum; http://forum.webnauts.net . Last but definitely not least are the Accessibility Tools listed on the University of Minnesota Deluth Website.

Presentation Tone

Presentation Tone plays a strong role in attracting and keeping visitors, converting Sales or accomplishing a certain goal. The interesting catch is that Presentation Tone may be a combination of; Intended Audience, Website Purpose, Owner or Corporate Character, Content Type and Website Color Scheme Selection.

1) Intended Audience and Visitor Conversion Psychology

The combination of many elements are required to meet the Website's Intended Audience. Visitors arrive by all means through just about every page on a Site. Primarily at issue, is that everyone who visits a Site (every visitor) is looking to satisfy a need of some kind. Anticipating and meeting those needs generates repeat patronage. Most Sites, with or without direct sales must greet their visitors where they are at and convert them to "Customers".

A good measure of a Site's effectiveness in reaching the intended audience can be viewed in the Site Statistics. Most hosting companies provide Site Statistics for every Site hosted. They are usually accessible through the Control Panel (CPanel). Higher percentages of visitors bookmarking or saving your Site as a favorite is indicative of how well Site is serving the needs of visitors. Let's don't count out the Visitors Returning from "Bookmarks" or "Favorites" statistic. A well designed and updated Site can easily see many times the return visitors as it realizes from all Search Engines combined.

2) Website Purpose and Content Type

All Websites serve a purpose. One way to attract and hold targeted traffic is to present Website Purpose and Relevant Content Quickly. Greet your "potential customer" with some of what they are looking for immediately.

Usually, Sites that have good clear navigation and present the visitor with as few clicks as possible to glean information are well thought out and more successful in the Search Engines. The Search Engine Algorithms are based on logic, as is all software. Therefore it is important also to present those logical channels to the Search Engines. More about built-in SEO on our Search Engines Page.

3) Website Color Selection

Website Color Selection is the very first thing that greets a potential customer. A Website's Color Scheme is a big component of "Relative Presentation".

Several issues are involved here such as; Does the company have pre-selected Colors? Do they already have a logo? Usually, colors can be digitally matched using graphics software.

There are many complex issues involving color selection such, as colors having different sociological, psychological or cultural meanings in different countries. There are also many "Universal" psychological effects brought on by color. Here are some good resources on "The Psychology of Color" and "What Colors Mean":

The "Critical Thinking" Website has several good "Color Psychology" Articles.

Google Answers Website Color Questions

More about Color Selection In our Webmaster Resources Pages, and on our "Website Design" Page.

More about the "Creative Process".

Website Design Mechanics - Title Tag, Metatags, Keyphrases and the Application of Search Engine Logic.

"Work Simplification" is an industrial term with the basic meaning; "Make it as simple as possible, without compromising quality". Although GOOGLE seems to have dropped the indexing and any other emphasis on metatags due to their abuse and misuse, several of the other Search Engines still use the "Keyword and "Description " metatags. All of them seem to continue with the "Title" tag, which is not a metatag.

But, before we go there we have to understand several Web Development issues at play:

1) ALL SOFTWARE SYSTEMS ARE LOGICALLY BASED, including the ever maturing Search Engine algorithms.

2) Just because GOOGLE has devalued the "Keyword" and "Description" metatags, that is no reason for a Webmaster to follow suite. They simply had to take action against abuse. In our opinion Google is the undisputed leader against "Webmaster" and SEO abuse, tricks and games.

3) Research reveals that a majority of all Internet Surfers use a 2 word keyphrase. Next in line is the 3 word keyphrase and next is the single keyword search. This reveals that most savvy searchers (the public) regard single keyword terms as more irrelevent and choose not to even start researching a topic in in a futile manner.

Wrapping it together, the best practice seems to be to establish an heirarchiel order for every Website you build. Topical two and three word keyphrases remain your strongest "Story Board". In the smplified graphic below you will find a suggested Logical Hierarchal Order for your "KeyPharses". The most important as "K1" and building from there. If you have more, fine, add them underneath, but maintain the prominant logical order for the SEs and potential clients throughout your Site structure.

The Site Hierarchy is determined by several factors including an initial Competitive Analysis. There is absolutely no way to offer a client a competitive position, if you don't know what the online competition is. Yes, it is time consuming, but necessary.Yes, they have to be linearized from the pyramidal hierarchy.

Yes, you have to establish an hierarchy for the keyphrases (2 and 3 word primarily) and intelligently apply them in the "Title Tag" and metatags. This means that you have to expertly "Copy-Write" or "Ad-Write" for every client, using appropiate keyphrases early in context and in a frequency according to your logical plan, while maintaining continuity and good "readership".

Two coments about this task; 1) Many clients do not provide good "adcopy" and just don't have a clue, even those (maybe especially those) that want to go CMS (Content Management Systems). In our opinion, the way the Search Engines work, we do not support CMS for clients! It would be a rare breed indeed if you found a client that could picture the full scope here and write effective adcopy themselves! It is very hard to correctly optimize with content changing frequently.

Without understanding these issues as a "Webmaster" does, we conclude the obvious; Clients just cannot be their own best Webmaster, and need help. That is our market!

CMS gained favor on the "Fresh Content" wave associated with blogging and RSS feeds. The problem is that "Spammers" are so intent on exploiting any new technology that the Search Engines must maintain a constant vigil and tweak algorithims accordingly and regularly. One thing for sure though, there is no substitute for well written content depth and uniqueness!

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