The NewVista News

Design your site for multiple types of Web browsers, - across the widest possible audience. The Web is a multi-platform, non-browser specific medium. It should not matter whether people view your site/pages using Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, or Opera. Each browser should render your web pages without problems. If a web page is designed properly, anyone using text-to-voice or Braille displays, can easily listen to and view your “stuff.”

Run your web pages through some sort of “validator” to test their compliance with common HTML (HyperText Markup Language) specifications. Modify pages until they validate. Most compliant pages have a better chance of being rendered correctly by the various web browsers.

Condense textual content to fit the time and attention constraints of today’s busy web-users.

Use small (byte-wise) graphics so they load more quickly in graphics-capable browsers. It is not necessarily advisable to use GIFs for everything. It’s more important to make the right choice between JPEG and a palette-based format. Avoid blindly choosing GIF and then trying to rescue yourself from the resulting problems.

Test, test, test... Every visitor will see your pages differently. Test your pages with as many browsers and platforms as you can. For example, run pages through a browser like Lynx to see how the “text-only” world sees your documents. Note that search engines are, in effect, text-only browsers. Make documents Lynx-friendly. Try different preferences, color and font settings, and window sizes. Always check how pages look with higher/lower monitor brightness settings.

For the future, to add presentational effects and Web page style, validate documents at the HTML 4.0 level (for the cleanest possible markup), so pages contain little or no HTML 3.2 presentational markup or proprietary stylistic hacks, and use the W3C’s Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language to add stylistic effects to your pages.

Final thoughts…Don’t forget to Spell-check and proof-read your documents. You’d be surprised at how often it’s overlooked. Establish a routine for locating and fixing broken internal and external website links. Include contact information and a copyright notice. Sign It! If your website URL or email address will change occasionally, consider using a service that provides email forwarding and URL redirection.Persistent Uniform Resource Locator Submit your Web site address to an appropriate newsgroup for a critical peer review.Newsgroups Promote your Web site by adding your Web address to search engine indices and subject directories. To ensure that people can easily find your website, it may be necessary to modify your pages to take best advantage of current search technologies.

Search Engine WatchRemember, the “search engines” are watching you, and you WANT them to see you. Send a request and ask them to “re-index” your site from time to time. (And, don’t forget, they can’t read Flash.)