Keep It Clean

So, you're building a site with a popular page design program... Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Not all code is created equal.
  On-screen, your page may look great, but behind the scenes, it may be messy. Popular HTML editors often put additional code into pages -- especially pages that have been edited many, many times. This code can slow you down and confuse the browser. And some code may become obsolete, as new browsers come out. Looks can be deceiving, when it comes to page-building.
• Not all browsers are created equal.
  As the World Wide Web evolves, so do browsers. Code which works great in an "old reliable" browser, may break with a newer release. Browsers, like web pages, sometimes have their faults -- they don't support common standards and have "proprietary" features, which may make them unusable later.
• Plan, Plan, Plan...
  Make sure you think through all the various aspects of your site, before you start coding. Get out your pad and paper and sketch what you want it to look like. List what you want it to do. Build your site around its functionality, and allow for future changes, and you'll save yourself lots of work and headaches later on. Is your site for information only, or does it have helpful tools? Do you want people to be able to e-mail you from every single page, or do you not want direct communication from your site visitors? Figure out what you want, then figure out how to build it.
• Clever is nice, but simple is better.
  A complex design may show your technical sophistication, but if it confuses the visitor and they don't come back again, there are no winners. Keep your site design plain and simple and quickly loading, and you'll do us all a favor.
• Testing, 1, 2, 3...
  When you build your site, make sure you look at your individual pages in several different browsers -- sometimes something that works great in Netscape, doesn't in Internet Explorer -- and vice versa. Browsers are free. Get more than one and check your work.

Why do you need a web site? | Keep it real | Keep it fresh