Eliminate Counters, Clich s, and All Things Cute in Java

Maker QR-Code in Java Eliminate Counters, Clich s, and All Things Cute

Because I can That s the response I get when I ask most people why they added a cute little gadget, such as a counter or stock ticker, to a Web site With SiteBuilder, you can easily add a lot of neat stuff to your Web pages, but that doesn t mean you always should Visit, for example, the Web sites of Toyota, CNN, or Macromedia They may have a Flash or ActiveX multimedia controls, but probably only one, and the actual size is quite small But you won t see much else cute on their sites

Before adding something to your Web page, always ask yourself: Would I see this on one of the Big Boys Web sites If so, consider it If not, you better have a much better reason to add it than because I can With that in mind Most animated GIFs and scrolling messages look cheesy Avoid them unless they re really professional looking Avoid those cute construction signs if part of your site is not completed Instead, add some descriptive text I know, SiteBuilder enables you to easily add these, but for your business site, avoid page fade-in or fade-out effects anyway There s absolutely no reason for it other than because you can In fact, if you can find a Big Boy site that uses fade-in effects, I ll treat you to a Tuscan holiday Avoid using a visible page counter The number of visitors should be like a James Bond case: For Your Eyes Only Do you, for example, really want to tell the world that you ve only had 50 people come to your site since last year Instead, if you really want to capture this info, do so with a behind-the-scenes solution, which I discuss in 15 Not a gadget, but it is a clich : Don t say anywhere on your site Web site of, Home of, Online home of, or any derivation thereof A visitor already knows it s your Web site What else could it be Using Flash or Java is normal, but beware of using nonstandard plug-ins Unless it is a plug-in, such as Flash, that 999 percent of your visitors probably already have, you almost never want a visitor to be forced to download a plug-in to view content on your Web site

You don t have to act like a CNNcom or Amazoncom and update your site hourly or daily, but you should regularly provide new information on your site to keep visitors coming back For example: Consider having a What s New or Latest News box or page so that people can check out any new stuff you may have added Make sure your Web site doesn t date itself: Don t keep up old news For example, if you re announcing a Christmas sale, don t keep that information up there through St Valentine s Day in February

Check your copyright date If you have a copyright notice in the footer of your Web pages, make sure it is updated to the current year Nothing looks more dated than a Web site with copyright notices from two years ago Only have a Last Updated date on your Web site if you update the site at least once a month Otherwise, let visitors think you may have actually updated it, rather than knowing that you ve not touched the thing in six months Consider revising your overall site design at least once a year to keep things looking fresh

The Big Boys are fanatics on keeping the size of each page to a bare minimum, particularly the home page You need to be, too With that in mind No matter how much it hurts, keep your home page at around 50K in total size On a sublevel page, you have slightly more leniency, but you should aim for 80K or less on nearly every page Pictures are critical to a well-designed site, but avoid using too many If you are using JPG files, see how much you can squeeze out of the compression before the quality of the image degrades too much (See 7 for more details) I have a site that I like to frequent occasionally that has a navigation bar built using Flash Bless their hearts, but the silly thing takes so long to load for each page that I ve only seen it load fully on one occasion All other times, I go to the site, check out the info I need, only to leave before the Flash presentation loads