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Did you know that nearly 20 percent of all Web users have some form of disability?

Making your site accessible for all is a matter of courtesy, is good business practice, and is not difficult, explains Robert Roberts, a professional SEO who owns the SEO Toolbox (http://www.seotoolbox.com).

In fact, Roberts believes that Web accessibility issues are so important that he?s been having monthly chat sessions on the subject for students at the Academy of Web Specialists (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/courses.html). He?s also created a special section of his Web site that?s devoted to accessibility issues (http://www.seotoolbox.com/htmlchat/accessibility.html).

Roberts states that disabilities can be anything from ?simple? color blindness to more severe disabilities.

The Use of Alt Text to Solve Accessibility Issues

Let’s start with image alt tags. You can use the alt tag to your advantage, not just for SEO purposes. The alt description tells those users with assistive technologies what the image is about.

There is the issue of lots of clear images meant to be used as spacers in layouts. Should you use an alt tag for every one of those? Yes, in a sense, you use what’s called the Null Alt, meaning an empty alt tag, like this: alt=”". Notice that there is no space between the quotes, which means that assistive devices will bypass the image and not try to explain it. But if you don’t use it, assistive devices will show a blank where the image would be or cause other display issues.

The alt tag for navigation images is critical. Actually, you should use text navigation wherever possible, as good SEO?s, but there are times when the layout uses buttons, which brings up another issue - that of navigation preceding content.?

Solving the Problem of Navigation Preceding Content

Roberts continues, ?When a person using an assistive device opens a Web page, he or she is usually greeted by lots of navigation before getting to the content. Furthermore, an assistive device like a screen reader will read ALL of the navigation every single time. One solution is to include a “skip navigation” link that allows the person to jump to the page content. This can be in the form of a tiny hidden clear image linked to an anchor tag.

If you would like to see an example, take a look at the source code for any page at SEO Toolbox (http://www.seotoolbox.com). The logo at the top of the page is linked to the menu, because the menu markup is actually at the bottom of the HTML code. You would be able to use this strategy with any assistive device or in a text browser like Lynx.

Why Accessibility Issues Are So Important These Days

One of the reasons all of this is so important,? says Roberts, ?is because of a lawsuit in progress that looks like it may get to the Supreme Court. A blind man in Florida is suing Southwest Airlines because he is unable to complete normal transactions on their Web site.”

By means of explanation, the Americans with Disabilities Act provides provisions on the accessibility of public accommodations to the disabled, and this is the Act that is being referenced in the case.

The plaintiffs in the case claim that Congress wrote the ADA so broadly that the Internet is covered, meaning that it ‘applies to Internet Web sites just as it does to brick-and-mortar facilities like movie theaters and department stores.’

The defendants (Southwest Airlines and American Airlines) have taken the position that Congress never meant to include the Internet, because cyberspace was in its infancy at the time the law was written. So, the argument is whether a Web site is a ‘public accommodation’ under Title III of the ADA.

But,” continues Roberts, “there is a precedent that will surely influence the outcome. In Australia, a similar suit was brought a couple of years ago by a blind person against the Olympic Committee because he could not get tickets online. The suit resulted in a win for him: a $20,000 damage settlement.

What all this means is that sooner or later, any Internet site offering goods and services will have to comply with accessibility standards.?

In Roberts accessibility section (http://www.seotoolbox.com/htmlchat/accessibility.html), he?s placed a link to the lawsuit, if you?d like to learn more.

What if you have an image that conveys information, such as a pie chart, graph, or schedule? A simple alt tag description isn?t sufficient to convey that information adequately. Roberts explains a work-around for this problem:

There are a couple of things you can do, with one being right in the tag itself: you can use the ?longdesc? element. The longdesc is actually a link to another page where you can lay out the information in text format.

Here is a sample tag:

The problem with the longdesc attribute is that it is not widely supported by assistive technology. As a result, an alternative convention is suggested, using a D-Link. This is a text link placed immediately after the image. It is a link to the same descriptive page contained in the longdesc attribute. This way, you are sure that it can’t be missed.

Here’s an example using the D-Link:

D

Some Accessibility Solutions Are Actually Beneficial from an SEO Standpoint

Since Search Engine Marketers often use alt text as an extra spot to place keywords, can it still be used in that manner?

Bear in mind that it should not be only for keywords, because it really is an assistive aid. What I’ve done is something like this: keyword keyword - link to description page, explains Roberts.

Roberts continues, ?A link to a more informative text explanation of a pie chart or whatever can only add to search engine relevancy because you can make the additional page focus on a keyword. Accessibility also applies to things like WAP, handheld devices, and telephonic devices.

People need to see what your information is and how to get to it. The matter of tables is important not only because of accessibility but because it will actually be easier for search engines to get around in them. There is a brief example of this on the regular SEO Toolbox site: http://www.seotoolbox.com/spider-friendly-tables.html. There is more complete information, with two examples, at: http://www.seotoolbox.com/htmlchat/tables_layout.html.?

After all, Roberts continues, which do you think will be better for relevancy? If a spider must wade through yards of code before getting to your content, or if the spider can see your content first thing? The answer is pretty obvious.?

If you aren’t using Lynx, Roberts recommends adding it as part of your Web development arsenal for seeing how your pages look in a variety of browsers. (http://lynx.browser.org/)

Lynx is a free, predominately text-based browser that will give you an idea of how those with disabilities view your site. Many Web visitors prefer it because it doesn’t support JavaScript, Flash, or DHTML and is free of popups.

For More Information

According to Roberts, one of the best books on the topic of accessibility is Constructing Accessible Web Sites by Jim Thatcher. The book just hit the shelves and covers what you need to know in an efficient, easy-to-understand manner.

And, be sure to keep a close watch on Robert’s accessibility section of the SEO Toolbox: http://www.seotoolbox.com/htmlchat/accessibility.html. He?ll be adding more information to the section as he conducts chat sessions at the Academy.

Academy students can attend any of Roberts’ upcoming chats, or even if you?re not an Academy student, you can read the transcripts afterward at the Chat Index area: http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/chat/chatindex.htm.

The great debate: how much copy you should have on your site, particularly on the home page?

Do you subscribe to the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words–and therefore images, not a lot of text, should be the main thrust of your home page? Or do words have more power to capture a visitor’s attention and compel them to buy–meaning you should aim for powerful copy? As a graphic designer, my natural inclination is to create graphically-rich, light text websites. Since I’m focused on what a site looks like visually, I like using impressive images, bold splashes of color all over the page, and not very much copy. The end result is an attractive, visually-appealing site, with very few words. However, I’ve learned that I have to balance this inclination with a cold hard reality: what appeals to me as a designer is not necessarily the same as what visitors need.

The main problem with websites that don’t have any copy is that they fail to quickly and effectively communicate the three points that all commercial websites must get across: You must explain what your company does, what the benefits are of using your product or service, and why prospective customers should purchase from you. These important pieces of information can only be conveyed vaguely, if at all, through images. While pictures are often very useful in reinforcing a message, it’s difficult to succinctly drive home these important points solely through images.

On your website, visitors want specifics, and they want them quickly. They want you to tell them exactly what you can do for them, and they want to know right now. You must specifically state what you do and explain how your product or service is going to make your customers’ lives better. You have to spell out why people should buy from you versus your competitors.

Particularly on a home page, you must catch a visitor’s attention and give them a reason to stay on your site. If you don’t do this immediately, they’ll be gone.

For this purpose, words are far more effective than images. In almost all cases, pictures cannot communicate the message nearly as specifically or quickly as well-chosen words can.

It’s important to remember that the web revolves around information. People use the web to find out what they need to know, to be informed on topics that are important to them. That almost always means they are looking for text. They want explanations, answers, reasons, and motivation.

I firmly believe that pictures and images enhance a website, but they should be used to provide a tasteful, professional frame for your copy, not replace it.

It is true that web users are notorious for having short attention spans and not wanting to read large amounts of copy. However, the problem is that most of the copy on websites today is vague and not enticing. It’s focused on the company rather than the customer. So it should be no surprise that visitors avoid reading it.

The solution does not lie in eliminating text-based communication; it means we have to work harder to capture interest with copy. People DO read copy that catches their attention.

If visitors are met with paragraphs that are focused on them, that are rich with benefits, and that are formatted in easy-to-read chunks, they are much more likely to be drawn in and to act on your offer.

Don’t focus strictly on graphics. Go for copy.

Never put form over function. Why? Because it’s crucial that visitors actually be able to USE your site. Everything you do must be designed to be as easy for the visitor to understand as possible. Everything should be functional first.

If you put form before function, you sacrifice your visitor’s best interest for your own preferences. By definition, putting form over function means you sacrifice function–you make it harder to perform whatever task is supposed to be performed. You give up ease of use or simplicity in order to make it look nicer. Basically, you wind up with a lot of icing and no cake.

Don’t get me wrong–form often accentuates function, just like icing accentuates a cake. Something that is visually pleasing often increases the usability by making it more attractive or by using visual elements to increase understanding. Creative design can often be used to make a task easier to perform. It can entice the visitor to take whatever action you want them to take.

However, on the web, there are frequently contests between form and function. Designers make choices between whether to make something look nicer or make it simpler and easier to use. For example, these are common ways of sacrificing function:

• Using an uncommon style of links that makes it hard to recognize the links.
• Putting a textured background behind the copy, even though it will make the text harder to read.
• Choosing a font color that doesn’t have enough contrast with the background color.
• Using a font face that is difficult to read.
• Using an uncommon name for a common link. For example, “Talk” instead of “Contact us”.
• Placing elements in unexpected places. Like putting the logo on the right side of the page or placing the main navigation along the bottom of the design.
• Using a splash page on the site because it looks neat, even though it keeps visitors from getting to the real information in the site.
• Using a lot of fancy images that make the page load more slowly.
• Opting for a totally graphical design with no copy on the main page. Regardless of the fact that visitors won’t have a clue what the business is all about until they get further into the site.

These are all examples of choosing form over function. Unfortunately, if your design looks great but is hard to figure out, your visitors will be gone. They don’t come to your site to admire the looks; they come to use the site–to find information or to accomplish a task. Anything you do to stand in their way is a no-no.

Most of the time, a visitor’s attention span is about as long as snake fur. They have no patience. If you complicate their lives, they’re outta here. Other sites are ready and waiting to meet their needs, so there is no reason they should struggle through your site. If you opt for form over function, you’re likely to opt yourself right out of sales. Not good.

When you’re designing your website, don’t think about looks first. Always make function a priority. Think about what’s going to be easiest for your visitors to use and understand. Then create an attractive presentation to accentuate it.

Don’t mess with those links! When you’re designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state–blue and underlined. We all want to be creative and not do the bland, expected, normal thing. We want to change our links to red, green, yellow, even black–anything but blue. And we have the urge to take off those underlines.

Resist the temptation. It’s hard. But there’s a good reason to leave them alone.

From the earliest days of the web, text links have been blue. People intuitively recognize that blue, underlined text is a link. They know they can click on it.

The combination of blue and underlines means “If I click on this, it goes somewhere”. We’re conditioned to recognize those distinguishing characteristics. We’re like Pavlov’s dogs–we see the link and instantly know what it means. There’s no time wasted in trying to figure out whether or not that particular word or phrase is clickable.

If you mess with the natural appearance of a link, you lose that instant recognition. People have to stop and think (and often click) to figure out what your colors mean. I have watched countless people try to navigate websites and spend half their time figuring out what’s a link and what’s not. They have no way of knowing.

In addition, people scan a page for links. They like to be active on the internet, and they like to know what they can do. When they recognize a link in your copy, it’s a clear signal of someplace to go. Visitors want to know what their options are. It’s not a good idea to make life difficult. They’ll appreciate coming across a site that’s easy to use and doesn’t try to confuse them (for once!).

It is becoming more acceptable to use other colors for your text links, as long as they remain underlined. But if you can, it’s still best to use blue. This is because so many people use underlined, colored text on their sites that is NOT linked. Visitors have a tendency to get confused. They never know what to expect. With blue, it’s obvious.

Some people have brought up the point that if we stick to the status quo, there will never be any improvements in the system.

My answer: In a medium like the web, forward movement will never be a problem. The web continues to push ahead, regardless of whether your site jumps on the bandwagon or not. There will always be new growth, no matter what your site does.

The question is, when is it appropriate for your site to adopt the latest fads? To answer that question, you must keep in mind your site’s purpose and your audience.

If your site is technology oriented, and your visitors are technically-minded and on the cutting edge, then going for the latest trend is more appropriate.

But if your site is focused on an average web user, it’s different. If you’re sellling a product/service, communicating information, or driving any specific action, you need to keep your visitors focused on that goal. You shouldn’t distract them with trying to learn a new set of skills and standards just so they can navigate your site.

Never move faster than your audience is ready to move. At this point in time, people still struggle with being able to recognize links. A majority of people have a difficult time finding what they want. If they are still struggling, your site needs to accomodate them.

As more and more people become comfortable with advances in technology and design style, it will be appropriate to incorporate those advances into your site. Just wait until your audience is ready.

Final thoughts: If the context of your site makes it clearly obvious what is a link and what is not, it is sometimes permissible to use a color other than blue for your links. For this to work, your copy should have no colored text that isn’t linked (with the exception of headings) and no underlined text that isn’t linked. Only use another color if you are sure that visitors won’t have any trouble recognizing your links.

The main point: Visitors shouldn’t have to think about what is a link and what isn’t. Whatever you can do that maintains instant recognition is great. Go for it!

Introduction

Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have web design experience within your company. Building your web site will take time and a little homework!

To create a web site for your business, follow these 4 simple steps:

1. Establish your goals
2. Determine your budget
3. Pick a web design company
4. Pick a web hosting company

Establish Your Goals

Before you begin looking for company to help you design and build your web site, take the time to understand the goals of your web site. This will be extremely important to help set expectations with the web design company you choose.

In order to set your web site goals, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why do you want a web site?
2. Are you selling something?
3. Do you have a catalog of products that changes on a regular basis?
4. Who is your target market?
5. Do you already have a brand?
6. What is your industry?
7. Who are your competitors?
8. Do they already have web sites? If so, what do they look like?
9. If you’re selling something, will you accept credit cards over the internet?
10. How soon do you want your web site?
11. What happens if you never create a web site for your business?

Take the time to answer each of the above questions and if you have time, write the answers down on a sheet of paper. These are the same questions most web design companies will ask you before they begin to create your site. If you have these questions answered up front, you will have some criteria for choosing the right web design company. For example, if you are a real estate agent, and want to publish listings on your web site, you should seek a web design company that knows about the real estate business and has created web pages for other real estate agents.

Determine Your Budget

How much do you want to spend on your web site. Web sites can cost you anywhere from $100 to $100,000 depending upon what you want it to do. Know your spending constraints before you begin negotiating with design companies. Whatever you do, do not tell a web design company what your budget is!! Always get pricing based on your needs, not you budget.

Pick a Web Design Company

Your choice of a web design company is a very important step. Take your time to investigate all of your options. Here are some important items to consider.

Design vs. Build

Depending upon the scope of your web site, you may need to choose two different companies. Building a web site is a highly technical process. Designing a web site is a highly creative process. Many advertising firms specialize in web site design which does not necessarily require any web development skills whatsoever. The process of creating a web site is similar to the process of building a new home. Before you ask a construction company to start building, you first seek out an architect who creates a blueprint of your house taking into account what you want (number of stories, square footage, etc.). Creating a detailed blueprint before construction begins can help you accurately estimate the final price. Without the blueprint, you may end up paying a lot of money for a house that does not fit your needs. Creating a web site is exactly the same except most web site “builders” also claim to be “designers”. The good news is that you can look at other sites a web design company has created (like looking at other homes that a home builder has made). Make sure you ask the web design company what their process is for designing a web site vs. building a web site. They should understand the difference between these two concepts. If they don’t, they’re probably builder that think they can also architect.

Evaluate Experience

Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience? As with any services company, choosing someone that has relevant experience. If you want to sell products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience doing just that?

Review the Portfolio

A well established web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Ask for links to other site the design company has created and review each one. Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you? In addition to reviewing web sites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the web design company. Were they happy with the results? Did they get what they paid for? How much did they pay? Would they recommend them? How long did it take? What didn’t they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions?

Compare Prices

Pricing for creating a web site can vary. Typically, web design companies will charge one of three ways:

1. Time and materials: price is variable based on the actual number of hours spent working on your site. For example, a web design company may charge you $75 per hour. If it takes 100 hours to create your web site, your price would end up being $7,500.
2. Fixed Price: some design companies will charge you a fixed fee based on a fixed set of requirements. If you outline your requirements very carefully, many web design companies will quote you a single price.
3. Component Pricing: some design companies will charge “by the page”. By creating a price based on the number of pages, you can control the cost by designing a specific number of pages. Buyer beware: some design companies will charge by the page but will have “special pricing” for components such as custom graphics, animated images, and the like.

The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal unless all of the costs are well understood up front. Also make sure that you understand what “done” means. Try and structure the payments such that a significant portion of the fees (20%) are not due until you “accept” the final web site. Include the agreed-upon dates in your contract and provisions for what will happen if these dates are not met.

Solicit bids from multiple web design companies and compare both the pricing models and the prices themselves.

There are thousands of web designers across the country and they should all fight feverously for your business! Be picky! If a web design company dismisses any of your questions regarding their design process, pricing, or client references, take your business elsewhere!

About The Author Andy Quick is co-founder of Findmyhosting.com (http://www.findmyhosting.com), a free web hosting directory offering businesses and consumers a hassle free way to find the right hosting plan for their needs. Feel free to contact Andy at andy@findmyhosting.com in case you have any questions or comments regarding this article.

1. Don’t load your web site with a lot of high tech clutter. Your visitors may miss your whole sales message.
2. Don’t use unnecessary words or phrases on your site. You only have so much time to get your visitor’s attention and interest; make ever word count.
3. Don’t make the mistake that everyone will totally understand your web site message. Use descriptive words and examples to get your point across.
4. Don’t write your strongest point or benefit only once. You should repeat it at least 3 times because some people may miss it.
5. Don’t push all your words together on your web site. People like to skim; use plenty of headings and sub headings.
6. Don’t use site content your target audience isn’t interested in. If people are coming to your site to find info about fishing don’t include soccer content.
7. Don’t use 50 different content formats all over your web site. Use the same fonts, text sizes, text colors, etc.
8. Don’t use words your web site visitors might not understand. People are not going to stop and look in a dictionary, they will just go to another site.
9. Don’t let selling words and phrases go unnoticed. Highlight important words and phrases with color, bolding, italics, underlining, etc.
10. Don’t forget to use words that create emotion. All people have emotions, people will have more interest when they are emotionally attached.

When browsing the internet you are likely to come across many different image formats. However, the most common formats are: CompuServe GIF, JPEG, and Bitmaps.

CompuServe GIF

GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format and was standardized by CompuServe in 1987. The very first GIF format was GIF87a and saves images at 8 pits-per-pixel with a colour level of 256. Then in 1989 CompuServe updated the GIF format to include animation, transparency, and interlacing, which was called GIF89a. Apart from animation, transparency, and interlacing there is little difference between to two.

JPEG

The JPEG image format was developed by Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG’s best feature is the compression, you can compact the image file to make it the size smaller (bytes). The problem with this format is that there is a trade-off details detail and size. Generally its best to save JPEG’s at 50% compression.

Bitmaps

Bitmaps was invented by Microsoft (everyone’s favourite company). The Bitmap format saves your image pixel for pixel, in other words, what ever you see on the screen before you save is what you see when you open the image again. The only drawback is that the file sizes can be extremely large, which may result in longer download/upload times

Squeezing the most efficient performance from your web pages is important. The benefits are universal, whether the site is personal or large and professional. Reducing page weight can speed up the browsing experience, especially if your visitors are using dial-up internet access. Though broadband access is the future, the present still contains a great deal of dial-up users. Many sites, ecommerce sites especially, cannot afford to ignore this large section of the market. Sites with a large amount of unique traffic may also save on their total monthly traffic by slimming down their web pages. This article will cover the basics of on-page optimization in both text/code and graphics.

Graphics

Graphics are the usual suspect on heavy pages. Either as a result of a highly graphic design, or a few poorly optimized images, graphics can significantly extend the load-time of a web page. The first step in graphics optimization is very basic. Decide if the graphics are absolutely necessary and simply eliminate or move the ones that aren’t. Removing large graphics from the homepage to a separate gallery will likely increase the number of visitors who “hang around” to let the homepage load. Separating larger photos or art to a gallery also provides the opportunity to provide fair warning to users clicking on the gallery that it may take longer to load. In the case of graphical buttons, consider the use of text based, CSS-styled buttons instead. Sites that use a highly graphic design, a common theme in website “templates”, need to optimize their graphics as best as possible.

Graphics optimization first involves selecting the appropriate file type for your image. Though this topic alone is fodder for far more in depth analysis, I will touch on it briefly. Images come in 2 basic varieties, those that are photographic in nature, and those that are graphic in nature. Photographs have a large array of colors all jumbled together in what’s referred to as continuous tone. Graphics, such as business logos, are generally smooth, crisp and have large areas of the same color. Photographs are best compressed into “JPEGs”. The “Joint Photographic Expert Group” format can successfully compress large photos down to very manageable sizes. It is usually applied on a sliding “quality” scale between 1-100, 1 being the most compressed and lowest quality, 100 the least and highest quality. JPEG is a “lossy” compression algorithm, meaning it “destroys” image information when applied, so always keep a copy of the original file. Graphics and logos generally work best in the “GIF”, or more recently, the “PNG” format. These formats are more efficient than JPEGs at reducing the size of images with large areas of similar color, such as logos or graphical text.

A few general notes on other media are appropriate. Other types of media such as Flash or sound files also slow down a page. The first rule is always the same, consider whether they are absolutely necessary. If you are choosing to build the site entirely in Flash, then make sure the individual sections and elements are as well compressed as possible. In the case of music, I will admit to personal bias here and paraphrase a brilliant old saying, “Websites should be seen and not heard.” Simply, music playing in the background will not “enhance” any browsing experience.

Text and Code

The most weight to be trimmed on a page will come from graphical and media elements, but it is possible to shed a few extra bytes by looking at the text and code of a web page. In terms of actual text content, there may not be much to do here. A page’s content is key not only to the user’s understanding but also search engine ranking. Removing or better organizing content is only necessary in extreme situations, where more than page weight is an issue. An example might be a long, text heavy web page requiring a lengthy vertical scrolling to finish. Such a page is common on “infomercial” sites, and violates basic design tenants beyond those related to page weight.

Code is a different story. A website’s code can be made more efficient in a variety of fashions. First, via the use of CSS, all style elements of a web page can now be called via an external file. This same file can be called on all a site’s pages, providing for a uniform look and feel. Not only is this more efficient; it is also the official recommendation from the W3C. The same may be said of XHTML and the abandonment of “table” based layout. Tables, though effective for layout, produce more code than equivalent XHTML layouts using “div” tags. Where a minimum of 3 tags are required to create a “box” with content in a table, only 1 is needed using divisions. Using XHTML and CSS in combination can significantly reduce the amount of “on page” code required by a web page. A final, relatively insignificant trick is the removal of all “white space” from your code. Browsers don’t require it; it is primarily so authors can readily read and interpret the code. The savings are minimal at best, but for sites that receive an extreme amount of traffic, even a few saved bytes will add up over time.

Conclusions

Target images and media files first when seeking to reduce the weight of a page. They are the largest components of overall page weight and simply removing them can significantly reduce total weight. The images that remain should be optimally compressed into a format appropriate for their type, photos or graphics. Avoid huge blocks of text that cause unnecessary vertical scrolling. Organize the site more efficiently to spread the information across multiple pages. Adopt XHTML and CSS to reduce the size of the on-page code, and call the CSS externally. These tips should help reduce the size of your pages and speed their delivery to your viewers.

To most people the process of building a web site remains somewhat of a mystery. This confusion probably stems from the fact that there is a cornucopia of web sites on the Internet. Even with wide variety of sites, every single one can be divided into two sections: front-end and back-end.

The front-end is the first thing that it is designed. It encompasses the look and feel of a web site. This is probably the most established part of the web site production process. Design has been around since Guttenberg printed his first bible. Much of what has been used in print media (especially art magazines) has transferred to the web.

Most well thought out web sites start off with sketches on paper. We like using the big huge box of crayons, the one with the crayon sharpener built in. Most of the colors in the “big box” are pleasing to the eye and are web friendly. If you use begin paying attention to sites you’ll notice that only a few colors are actually used, 256 to be exact. Only about 100 of those won’t give you a headache when you look at them. On request we will give these early designs to a client that wants to control the look and feel of their site. The site, of course, never ends up looking like the early designs. The same idea and concept is there but because of restrictions colors and whole images are lost.

This brings us to the next part of the front-end, the actual site creation. This is what many people view as the most important, which is what separates a professional looking site from an amateur one.

The images are created using products from across the board. Mainly, designers stick to industry standards like Photoshop and Illustrator. After getting the basic image in terms of proportions and size the designer should create the static HTML page.

This is the basic page you would see if you viewed the page source. This is one of the most rewarding, most hated and most tedious part of the web design process. Each browser displays a page differently. Since most users either use Internet Explorer 4+ or Netscape 4.5 we cater to those two. Sometimes we build a different site for each, trying to maintain the same layout.

That concludes the front-end section. Personal sites and some small business sites stop here. While this maybe acceptable today, tomorrow any web site hoping to attract and keep visitors is going to have a strong back-end.

There are many sites and website designers that offer premade templates, these have the entire graphical layout that a page needs.

For those with little or no experience with website design software, templates have quickly become a practical solution to professional website design. Most of the top end sites offer a huge selection of very impressive, easy-to-edit website templates. All you have to do is check your email containing the link to download the .zip file. The html in these templates is compatible with Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage. The major advantage is the price, they run anywhere from $20 to $70. Another great advantage is you don’t have to hire a web designer, who usually takes 1 to 2 weeks to produce a page of such high quality. Webmasters, either novice or expert, can easily save thousands of dollars on design fees by using website templates.

There are also some exception sites, such as http://www.web-site-templates.org that provide packages of templates at one price, instead of providing a different price for each template.

Once a visitor gets to your web site, you want to make sure they can find what they are looking for quickly and easily, or they will just go elsewhere. If a web site is easy to use and understand, visitors will come back time and time again.

Using intuitive navigation techniques will greatly improve the usability of your web site, and therefore user satisfaction and return rates. By intuitive navigation, I mean some sort of menu, map or list that is instantly understandable to most visitors to your web site.

One of the first points to making a site easy to navigate is to have a consistent menu that is on every page. By having a menu that is on every page of your site, users can move from each section from any other section, with out having to go back to a home page or menu page.

Keeping the menu in the same location, and in the same style throughout your site ensures that visitors quickly recognize how to navigate your site. If you have a different style menu on every page, users may get confused and not as easily comprehend how to navigate your site.

Another useful tool a Webmaster can include for visitors is a site map. A site map is a page containing an organized list of all the pages or sections of the site. Instead of moving through the site’s menu system and down through categories by clicking on links on different pages, a visitor has the option of going to the site map and clicking directly to the page they are seeking.

Though there are many fancy buttons, graphics and rollovers that can be used for your navigation menu, sometimes simple text links are the best bet. For one, text link navigation menus are fast loading. Many web surfers are on slow connections and do not want to wait for a complex navigation system to download. Text navigation menus also can add relevant text to search engine results, whereas image navigation bars cannot. Text navigation also helps ensure your users understand what the links mean.

If you do opt to use graphic navigation menus, you may wish to consider adding a redundant text navigation menu at the bottom of the page to ensure viewability and search engine spidering.

Many new Webmasters are tempted to use frames to create a navigation menu that will appear on all the site’s pages. The benefit is that the navigation will stay in sight even when the rest of the page is scrolled. But because frames piece pages together from other pages a Webmaster cannot be sure that a web page using frames will be viewed correctly. If a visitor comes to a page through a search engine that was designed to have a navigation menu added with a frame, the user will see not see the menu. Because of this, it is important to add a link to your home page on every page, so viewers can see your site as it was intended.

Even if you are not using frames, it would be helpful to have a link to the home page of your website on every page, to ensure users can find the “beginning” of your site.

Keeping the navigation menu near the top of the web pages ensures that surfers will be able to see the menu as soon as the page loads. If a user has to scroll to navigate to other pages of your site, they will be less inclined to do so.

In closing, it is important to keep in mind that when it comes to site navigation, simplicity is key. If a user does not immediately see what they need, they will not spend much time trying to find it, but will rather move on to the next site.