Dos and Don’ts of Website Revisions - Part I

Posted by Joanna G. on 22 December 2011 | 8 Comments

With the decline of Flash and the magnificent rise of HTML5, trying to keep up with web standards can be daunting. Or, if you’re still mourning the loss of Geocities Site Builder, depressing. Are you paying a fee for business web hosting, but aren’t placing well in search engines or capturing new customers? If your website is heavily flash based, table based or has been gathering dust for over 2 years, it’s time to get better results by rethinking your design and site structure. The good news is, you can probably start that process today, by yourself, without enrolling in a community college night class. For those savvy enough to attempt a few refreshing changes themselves, allow the following simple suggestions to assist you in turning your ancient eyesore into a beautiful, modern website. And for those who have no idea what a tag is….allow me to direct you to our contact page.

1. Using Unique Typefaces

DO play with fun display fonts in large headers and titles on your website. When used correctly, typefaces are a design element that can make a statement about your company’s personality.

DO NOT use small caps, hand writing fonts, or anything illegible in your body copy. Stick to the classic web fonts here: Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, etc.

DO Use free type services like Google Web Fonts, or paid services like Typekit. They make it possible to use real, custom-designed fonts on your website with no subscription fees and no coding knowledge. Don’t go crazy though – 2 fonts per page is sufficient! Installing too many fonts on one page makes it difficult to read anything, and will slow down your loading time.

DO NOT Display custom fonts as images! Search engines cannot read type as image, which could be a reason why your website isn’t ranking well or showing up for certain keywords. Overuse of type as image also affects site readers for Internet users with disabilities, slows down loading time, and cannot be translated for international viewers.

2. Flash Animation

DO: Remove your flash intro. Flash landing pages deny access to your website for some users and test your visitors’ patience. The iPhone and iPad and iPod Touch are becoming popular internet browsers, but do not support flash player at all. So if you require visitors to watch your new ad, click on a tiny hidden button, or really do anything before they can access the information they want…don’t.

DO NOT: Continue to use an entirely flash based website. With the rise of smart phone browsers and the increasing popularity of Apple products, businesses have been rushing to phase out their flash websites. Contact our Web Design Team to find out how we can help you with an HTML redesign and optional mobile website that will get picked up on any device and display correctly on every browser.

DO: Remove any animated gifs still lingering from 1999. Animated gifs slow down site loading time and are outdated relics of the Geocities years. Save them for your ironic Tumblr. See item 1 if your animated gifs include text as image.

DO NOT: Use flash as a solution to display videos on your website. Contact our Web Design Team to find out how we can help you implement the most recent HTML5 solutions instead.

3. Photo Galleries

DO: Start with large, high-resolution photography, and always scale the images down before posting them online. Scale them down to no larger than 960px, and make sure the resolution is 72 dpi for quicker loading speed. Photos freshly imported from your camera often have dpis of 200 or higher.

DO NOT: Post pixilated images on your website. Pixilated images are unattractive and unprofessional.

DO: Organize your photo galleries into neat columns and categories to avoid visually overwhelming your visitors. Limit the amount of thumbnails you are displaying on one page, and make sure you have enough white space between thumbnails so each image can be appreciated.

DO NOT: Use flash photo galleries. If you are currently using flash for your photo galleries, video galleries, or entire website, contact our Web Design Team to learn how we can help you use javascript and HTML5 solutions instead.

 

4. Navigation

DO: Keep your most important pages easily accessible, and no more than 1 click away on all pages. Users will get frustrated if they can’t get to the content they are looking for easily.

DO NOT: Change navigation menu location, styling or linkage as you click through the website. Navigation must be consistent on every page, or your visitors will get lost and will look elsewhere for the information or services they are seeking.

DO: Consider displaying your logo near your navigation. Your logo should be displayed in a clear & highly visible location, without being too big and dominating. Visitors should be able to see your navigation, logo, and beginning of the page content without having to scroll down in their browser window.

 

5. Social networking

DO: Keep up with a few social profiles. Depending on the needs of your business, these profiles can be a great way to promote yourself and generate new interest.

DO NOT: Litter your website with an excessive amount of buttons and badges. Too many social networking profiles can be difficult to keep up with, can hurt your search engine rankings if left unattended, and will create visual clutter on your website.

DO: Choose your social networks based on how you can best market your business. Retail businesses may prefer Facebook to show off albums full of their latest inventory. B2B services may prefer Twitter to inform customers about the latest news and developments in their field. LinkedIn is a popular engine for any business to post their services and link to resumes of leading employees. YouTube is best used for demonstrations of new products, or to share ad campaigns that have been created for your business.

DO NOT: Mix your personal and business accounts. Create separate logins for each profile so you don’t accidentally post personal information where it doesn’t belong.