|
|
I hope you enjoy this month's topic. This is your newsletter, so if you like or don't like something about it, please email us at newsletter@bullmoosemarketing.com and we will adapt. Like everything on the Web, we too at Bull Moose Marketing need to be flexible... Thanks for reading, Nick Ellinger CEO, Bull Moose Marketing, LLC. |
|
Pop-ups and Beyond: Worst Practices on the Web There are many Web sites that may be charitably described as "sub-optimal." We're not charitable, so we'll just say it -- some sites stink. Here is how your site can stink along with these sites (or, for most of us, things to avoid when creating your site): Pop-ups are a really good way to catch the eye. So are car accidents and wearing plaid with polka dots. Pop-ups only serve to hold someone on your site when they no long wish to be there or to draw attention where users don't want to have it drawn. Either way, they serve to annoy the user. If you want to let someone know something new, you can put it at the top of your site, draw the eye to it with color, present it with a picture, anything but giving the user what s/he doesn't want. If you must do a pop-up, make sure it relates to your site -- we hate the X10 camera and we hope you do too. Frames can help organize your site. However, they also imprison a user. They don't allow a user open a link in a new window, browse to parts of your site from a search engine, or use the back and forward buttons effectively. You can use standardize navigation by having a standard HTML call, a JavaScript menu, a ColdFusion imbed, or an ASP include statement. Plus, you'll get better search engine placement. Java menus are the same way. They organize, but there are more efficient, compatible, and fastest loading ways to accomplish the same thing. Speaking of organization, unclear menus are kind of like Justice Stewart's definition of pornography -- you know it when you see it. Some things to avoid:
Broken links are a favorite. You can easily check for these at Net Mechanic, a site by which we swear. It will check your code, compress your graphics, submit your URL to search engines, change your oil, and have you out the door in a jiffy. Broken images also are always a draw -- they say I care about my site so much that I don't notice when something blatant goes wrong. They could also be saying that you don't check your site from outside of your firewall; quite often, images can be seen inside of a firewall that can't be outside. Large graphics can be important to you, but they are unlikely as important to those you wish to woo. Rotating, bouncing, or otherwise animated graphics fall into the same category. They make the page much slower to load and more difficult to navigate (as the eye is typically drawn to what is moving, rather than static images). Use an image cruncher to consolidate your graphics or downsize the footprint of your graphics. Scroll for screens and screens. This is annoying, as it makes it more difficult to find what a page contains and is longer to load. You can solve this by breaking your page up into several sub-pages, providing a table of contents, and adding forward and backward links. Your users will thank you. Do you have any other pet peeves? Let us know at newsletter@bullmoosemarketing.com and we will use comments in our next newsletter. |
|
If you would like to subscribe, click here
|