4. Make browser compatibility a priority.
Article Index:
One common mistake a lot of designers make is to develop their site with the aid of a single browser and assume that it will still display more or less correctly across all platforms. This is incredibly unwise as even standards compliant browsers have problems that can be exasperated when viewed by a rival product and you could end up locking potential visitors out. Instead you should test your site against the most common three browsers (IE, Firefox and Opera) with every important code change or addition, this will help to spot and correct a rendering problem before it becomes too tedious to easily fix. Problems can also arise when you exclude older versions of browsers, though some sacrifices can be made so long as the basic functionality and navigation of your site is not compromised. One particularly good example of a backwards compatibility dilemma is IE6, which at the time of writing has been replaced by IE7 for well over a year. Unfortunately IE6 had poor CSS standards compliancy, yet it’s still widely used and thus should not be excluded. One handy way to test how a site will render on older IE versions is with this free online tool: Try to avoid solving all compatibility problems with general code hacks unless absolutely necessary as it can complicate your style sheet and isn’t terribly clean. There’s certainly something to be said for not trying to be too clever with your code; even older HTML tables still have their uses. 5. Don’t use too many adverts. Advertising is often essential to a free sites economic survival, though plastering your page with masses of adverts and or the use of annoying pop-ups and other intrusive methods can be highly counterproductive. Overuse of adverts can degrade the quality and accessibility of your content and undermine all your hard work, making visitors less likely to stick around. Furthermore, saturating a page with adverts can make the space less attractive for advertisers and may degrade their click-through (CTR) potential. So be sure to make space for a few adverts but try not to let it intrude upon the sites usefulness and readability. 6. Keep page sizes and content manageable. High-resolution images and lengthy pages are all very well but they do have some very significant drawbacks. For example, using too many high resolution images will increase you bandwidth bills and slow page loading. Instead, make sure to compress such images (use GIF, JPEG or PNG formats – some are better for different content, experiment) and try to keep those you do use to a respectable size. Likewise, pasting lengthy documentation into a single page can be unattractive and it’s far better to employ page separation, which simply describes the splitting up of content over several pages. This may increase bandwidth consumption by increasing pageviews (note: good for advertisers) but it will be easier on the eyes, especially since most visitors prefer to skim over content.
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