Is your site subdivided in multiple pages?

You can split one large page into multiple small pages. How do you make multiple pages? Well, if you can make one page, you can make another one using the same tools! Just give each page a unique file name. You home page is usually named "index . html". Assume you have another page, named "myother.html". You would usually want to have a link within "index . html", that points to "myother.html". The html code to point to the other page would look something like this:

 <A HREF="myother.html">click here to see my other page</A>

[back] Is an overview of all major pages given on the index page?

It is usually a good idea do have a short paragraph of text about each major subject (each major page or group of pages) in your main page. [back]  Is there a navigation aid on all pages?

On each of your pages, in a prominent place, like the very bottom or the very top of the page, there should be a number of links pointing to the major entry points of your web site. A good example is at the bottom of this page! [back]  Is the navigation aid in a consistent place?

It is a good idea to put the navigation aid in the same place on all your pages! As soon as visitors are familiar with one of your pages, they will easily find their way through all pages. [back]  Is the layout consistent (colors, fonts, backgrounds)?

Try to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout all your pages. For instance, don't vary the background between pages! The consistent look is a very good visual feedback for visitors to see whether they're still within your site, or clicked off and away already. [back]  Do you tell, sell, show something of your own?

No further comment necessary. Pages that offer nothing better than a collection of 20 Elvis pictures gathered from other web sites are not worth anybody's time! [back]  Do you offer a solid information collection, based on your own research?

Even if what you show on your page is not your original creation, it can still be of value if the value is in the amount of research done! A page that categorizes, describes, and lists or links to all of the 20,000 Elvis pictures on the net is sure worth a bookmark of mine! [back]  Is there any substantial text describing what you offer?

The first page is called "index" because it should give an overview on the stuff on your pages. I want to read in a few words what you are going to offer, otherwise I won't click on any of your links. Similarly, on each of your pages, I want to see a few words describing your stuff in some detail. Many people browse the net with image loading turned off, make sure these people get something out of your pages, too. At least, try to convince them to turn image loading on for your page. Also, use the "alt" keyword on your "img" tags so that there is a description of an image function even if that image is not visible, for example:

<img alt="Stop Sign" src="stopsign.gif">

[back] Do you use your own, not somebody else's graphics?

Forget the common graphics bits and pieces that everybody uses! "under construction", "click here", "new", "hot", all of these little (or bloated) gif files, forget them, I've seen them all. If you want to catch my attention, offer content, not gimmicks. You want to show a large picture, make me wait for 3 minutes to see it? Ok, it better be your own, and it better be a good picture. [back]  Does the text display first, and graphics last?

Normally, a web page is shown item by item, text or graphics, in a sequential, top-down fashion. With a decent modem, a page full of text takes no more than a second to transmit, but even a small image of about a square inch can take 10 seconds. Use multiple and large images, and you make me wait for 5 minutes easily. The real bad part is, an image on top of your page delays the text that comes below it! But this can be avoided easily! If you specify the image dimensions in your html code, loading of these images is delayed to the end of the page transmission. Let's assume you have a gif file named "mypicture.gif", which is, say, 100 pixels wide and 50 pixels high. The html code would have to look like this:

<img width=100 height=50 src="mypicture.gif">

If you use this technique throughout your pages, the text pops up extremely fast, and images are transmitted later, while I read that text. So how do I know the image dimensions, you might ask. With Netscape, it's easy. Point to the image. Click the right mouse button and select "view image". Click on the "View" menu and select "page info" - there it is, the width x height of your image! If you don't have Netscape, you'll have to use your graphics editing program to find out the image dimensions. [back]  Is the headline (for example, the page title) visible first? Is the headline coded as text, not an image?

Most pages start with a headline in a large font. Many misguided web page designers use a graphic image as a banner instead of plain text, because they think it looks "better". Well, maybe it does, but if it takes ages to transmit, I will hit the "back" button on my browser before I even see a fraction of it. My advice is, use a text banner. You can make it look almost as fancy as a banner image, by using some tricky html, for instance:

<table bgcolor=red border=3 width=100%><td><center><b>
<font size=5>The Smart Web Designer's Home Page<br>
<font size=3>Find All the Tricks of the Trade Right Here!
</B></font></td></table>

The Smart Web Designer's Home Page Find All the Tricks of the Trade Right Here!

[back]  Is the navigation aid in text mode? Does the navigation aid display quickly?

The same considerations apply for navigation aids as for headlines. I know your site, I know the index page, I know the subpages. I know the "goodstuff" page is the one I want to get to. If the navigation link to "goodstuff" is in text mode, I can click on it before the index page is completely loaded. But if the pointer to "goodstuff" is triggered through a silly GIF image, I might have to wait until all of the index page is loaded. In this case, I rather forget about your "goodstuff" and surf somewhere else.

You want your navigation aid to look fancy? OK, you can do that without using GIF images, like this:

Main Page

Good Stuff

Awards Page

And that's the html code to do it:

<center><table border=0 cellspacing=30>
<td bgcolor=hotpink><a href=main.htm>Main Page</a></td>
<td bgcolor=red><a href=music.htm>Good Stuff</a></td>
<td bgcolor=hotpink><a href=awards.htm>Awards Page</a></td>
</table></center>

[back] Are graphics of small size?
Can I blow up important images?

If you can help it, graphic images on your pages should be no larger than a square inch. Use thumbnail images wherever you can! If I really want to see one of your images in detail, let me click on the thumbnail and show me the large version all on its own. Better, don't even use thumbnails! A text link does it just as good:

Mountain Village

Ocean View

My Guitar

The html code looks like this:

<center><table border=0 cellspacing=30><td>
<table bgcolor=green border=2><td><a href=villag.jpg><center>
<font color=white>Mountain<br>Village</font></center></a></td></table>
</td><td>
<table bgcolor=blue border=2><td><a href=donky.jpg><center>
<font color=white>Ocean<br>View</font></center></a></td></table>
</td><td>
<table bgcolor=burlywood border=2><td><a href=lakew.jpg><center>
<font color=black>My<br>Guitar</font></center></a></td></table>
</td></table></center>

[back] Have you cut down on the number of graphics and banners per page?

How many images should there be on a page? You can argue that a maximum of 2 is bearable. You can argue that 4 is a reasonable number. You can put 32 images on your page, too, but don't expect me to visit your page. Avoid the obnoxious flood of nonsense banners that people put on their pages nowadays. Banner swap, web rings, awards, counters, guestbooks, search engines, voting services... yack! I have a bad example among my pages, too! [back]  Have you resisted the temptation to blast background music at your visitors?

Last not least, the one I hate most. I sit in my living room, with a nice CD on my stereo, and I am having a good time surfing the web. But every now and then, I stumble upon a page whose author dares to blast some musical lowlife midi noise at me. Not only does it take a long time to load that crap. What's worse, it is like sneaking into my living room and changing the radio station on me. It is like the moron at the beach who turns on his boom box, two feet from my ears, featuring my most unfavorite music type.

That does not mean your web page should not have music. Quite the contrary! You can offer a piece of sound to your visitors, but let them decide whether they want to hear it:

Listen to my Music! It takes only a minute to download!

You want to put background music on your page? OK, here is a very exact description of how to do that. Go ahead! Just don't count on me to ever visit your page again. [back]