Images

Make sure to optimize your images so they are compressed to a minimum file size so that they enjoy a quick loading. Images on your website should be under 10kb. A good image optimization program can reduce the size of most images to acceptable size. Extremely large images can be sliced into multiple pieces which also helps. Remember to specify height and width attributes in your images because this will allow your images to load much more quickly and efficiently because they let the browser how much space to leave for each image. For search engine optimization purposes, make sure to specify a name for the image in the “alt” tag. This provides a description for search engines indexing your site.

Technical Considerations

What type of web site management platform are you running? Does it have web based adminstration so you can change your web page content easily? Does it have a mailing list database with a subscription based newsletter system with automatic unsubscribe functionality?

Copywriting

Web page copywriting should inspire action; to click, or subscribe, or join, or buy. Just putting text on a page is not going to produce a sale. If you can handle the metaphor it helps to think of this as the flasher versus stripper modality. A flasher is like a web page without sex appeal. You have all the content there but it isn’t very exciting. With a stripper you get the visitor motivated to do something. This is why a clever mix of content and images produces higher conversions.

Browser Compatibility

Internet Explorer / Firefox / Safari / Mozilla / Netscape / AOL / Compatibility is an important consideration. Not all html and css code is compatible with all browsers. You will want your website to load properly in all the main web browsers. What you need to do is to load the different browsers on your desktop and run them to see how your site displays. One other alternative is to use a couple of web sites that will take your URL and show you alternative views of your site inside the different browsers. If you use html validation tools, do not rely on them to verify your website’s appearance. You need to eyeball your site in each browser to see what the customers will see.

Windows vs. MAC Compatibility

You will also want to make sure your web site works properly on both Mac and PC platforms. It is highly suggested to use browser safe colors, not a windows safe palette (many colors may not display properly on a Mac). The text/font output on a Mac is smaller than on a PC so that is another obstacle to avoid (a size 12(pixel) font, on a Mac, will look much smaller on a MAC than on a PC. Visitors to your site will most likely not know how to adjust the font sizes in their browsers. If you are designing on a Mac, don’t make your fonts too large or they will end up looking even larger on a PC.

Conversion & Site Goals

When you embark on a web site design project you have to start with a few essential groundrules type of questions.

◊        What is the intent of the site.

◊        What do you and/or your clients expect to achieve by having a Web site on the Internet?

◊        Establish specific goals for the site.