UNDERSTANDING WEB DESIGN.

• A WHOLE NEW WAY OF READING.
• WHAT MATERIAL SHOULD I USE?
  • Small businesses
  • Larger businesses
  • In all cases
• PICTURES
• KEYWORDS

A WHOLE NEW WAY OF READING

Users of the Web do not read material in the same way as you read a book or newspaper, They SKIM. If you have ever used the web yourself you probably do it to, maybe without even realizing it. The page comes up and you glance around see the keyword or phrase that you want, click and you’re gone to the next page to get the information you need. Finally when you get to the heart of the data you want, you stop to read it. That’s why it's called surfing!

This means that writing for the web is completely different, you must give the user what they need right upfront or they will surf off somewhere else. Don't try and format your documents in the same way you would your normal brochures. How you write your material will differ dramatically depending on what kind of web page you want.

Be aware that users can come in to any page on your site which has its own keywords. They don't have to come in through your home page. For this reason you need to ensure that the information you place on a page will stand on it's own merit without having to assume that a user has read something else first. Links to the other pages for more explanation are useful in many page sites for this reason.

SMALL BUSINESSES, WITH SPECIALIZED MARKETS.

We would consider these as, one location shops, restaurants, or any establishment that has a specialized business which is obvious to the user. For these businesses you most likely have a limited amount of information which is important to the user so you can afford to afford to put all your text on the main page - maybe with other pages branching off, a restaurant may want to describe itself and show a menu for example.
The hard facts that the user wants are right there, they know what you do and they know why they have come to your page.

If your business is a little more unusual users might not know who you are or what you do. In this case choose a few key phrases - or headlines if you prefer - to tell them what you do. Pick something catching and interesting so that they stay and read the rest of the page. Don't load the page with text, they won't bother to read it and will be gone to another site that is more appealing.

LARGER BUSINESSES WITH MANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. OR MUCH DATA TO IMPART.

Look at your information and try and decide what is relevant, what would a user be interested in. Try and be objective, I know you think it's all important because it's about you, but will the user? A list of the company executives and their pictures might look grand but very very few users will be the slightest bit interested in it.
Please bear this in mind when choosing your documents for inclusion on your page. Hard information is always useful while general ‘fluff’ style information will not hold a reader 10 seconds and your site will be of little use.

Once you have decided what documents you want to put out on the web, list them and try and decide how they relate to one another or how a user could find them from your home page. Make an ‘index’ for listing on the first page for them to click on to reach them. Many times documents are only found after a subsequent click on a second index. It should never take a user more then three clicks to reach the final hard data document. See Site Structure for more information.

Make text on the home page sparse. What you do, what you have to offer, and any other important information but NOT lots of text. The user will give up looking and go elsewhere. Don't go overboard on pictures.

IN ALL CASES.

Remember a page does not mean a screen. Pages can go on for several screen lengths. Most users are used to scrolling down the page, but they won't go on forever. Also since our site insists on rapid load time of pages we do not like overloaded or extra long pages. One of the reasons users come to us because they don't have to wait long for the pages to come up, we want to keep it that way, so keep those pages short!

Break up your text into sections with headings. Users will scroll down the page and read the headings only and stop when they see something that they consider relevant to them. NEVER expect a user to start at the top and read all the way down a page, It NEVER happens, unless the user is particularly interested in your business and has sought you out deliberately and even then few read the whole thing.

Make sure the most important information is on the first screen the user sees. That way they will stay and look at the rest of the page, if all they see is your logo and a pile of text, they will be off again.

PICTURES.

Pictures (even small ones) are LARGE on computer space and they take time to load.
Please restrict the number of images that you send. We will not place more than three images on a page no matter how many we receive. There is nothing more frustrating to a user than a page that takes forever to load. They will become bored with the wait and go elsewhere. For that reason we want to ensure that all our pages load in under 90 seconds. To do this we must limit the number of images and text on each page.

CHOOSING YOUR PICTURES.

Only use images if they enhance the text. Don't choose a image because it's pretty and would look cute. Choose it because it helps enforce what you are saying. Example. You are a hotel, your text says how nice your rooms are and how delightful the guests find them. However your picture shows a sunset over the trees. A picture of the room would be much more useful, the sunset although pretty just takes space, increases load time and does nothing to enhance your page. In fact it may annoy users who feel they have been cheated, their time wasted waiting for something useless to load.

Images can be anything you want. Line drawings, line art, photographs, clip art.

Use only quality images. Certainly the quality of the image on the Internet is not the best you will ever see although it is getting better. However if you begin with a blurry image it will only degrade more. A bad image can influence a user against you, they will consider your site inferior and move on. Use only sharp pictures and quality line art.

All pictures submitted no matter what form (photos, art, line art) will be scanned in and a BITMAP produced. This is then converted to either a GIF or JPG file for display on the web.

Please note that the Web does not have the complete range of colors that you will find in a photograph so your picture will look a little different.

Please ensure that you have copywrite to any images that you send us.

KEYWORDS.

What are Keywords?

The most common kind of keyword is the META TAG. These are entered in the document code of your web page. Each page of your site has its own set of keywords. This is what SOME outside search engines use to locate your site and pull it up on their searches. If you don't want other engines to be able to find your site, then there is no need to enter these keywords.

Other more local engines may use keywords which are specified outside of your page. These sites use keywords to define what your site is about and ensure that users only get back information that they requested rather than the 65,987 returns many meta tag sites offer. Several larger search engines are also beginning to use this method to reduce the number of useless returns.

How to choose your keywords.

Keywords for a DATABASE should describe your site as a whole. Write up a list of words which describe your site and you think would be useful in locating it. These will be used by the search engine for users to find your page, so please consider them carefully.

Keywords can be single words or short groups of words. Do not use sentences or phrases. Try to think of what a user of the database will be thinking when they try and find your page.

Example: You own a restaurant in Iselin. You sell specialty Italian food. You are non smoking only (and any other features about your establishment.)

KEYWORDS: restaurant, Italian, Non smoking, [your specialty], [plus any other keywords consider important].

Be sure to include the town your town and county on the forms as these are very important for users trying to locate what they need in a particular area. You do not need to list these as keywords on the forms, they will be added to the database automatically.

Meta Tags

If you have only one page on your site the keywords you choose for your DATABASE entry will be just fine for your page.

If you have more than one page on your site each page is most likely dealing with a different part of your business. The tags for each page may be slightly different. If for example you sell specialty chocolates and hand made cakes, and you have a separate page describing each, you may want to create a set of keywords for each page too.

As an example the keywords for the Package example site on the home page are the same as used on the DATABASE. These are:

travel, travel guides, travel medicine, Travel in US, US travel, United States travel

For the US travel page they are:

travel guides, Travel in US, US travel, United States travel

For the Travel Medicine page they are:

travel, travel guides, travel medicine

There are no tags on the form page as there is not need for it to come up on any search engine.

This is YOUR business and you know it best, so consider carefully what you want to put in those keywords, what do your customers look for when they come to you?? If you choose wrongly you can always change them later, but we cannot choose these words for you, only you know what you do best.