Design Tips
Basics
This is an example of a typical webpage and it describes how it is generally set up. This information is applicable to most pages
on a website,
but the first two sections are especially important on your Home page.
Search Engines
Paragraph Text
Photos
Backgrounds
Color
Corrections and Editing
What to Expect
As a rule, Google and the other search engines will parse your website page-by-page using the
content of the Main Header (Design Tips), Sub-Headers (Basics, Search
Engines, etc.) and the Paragraph text to determine the topics listed on a particular page. As a result, the wording of
your Headers is as important as your Paragraph text and should clearly reflect the message that you are trying to convey
for each paragraph or group of paragraphs. I can create the Headers for you, so you don't need to do this unless you really want to.
Search engines usually expect website text material to be in a specific
and logical format. They
will look for items that properly describe what the page is all about and will
actually check that the paragraph material is related to the headers. You know
your club, business or organization better than I do, so I will look to you to provide me with
text that is relevant to your site and the message you wish to publicize. The more detailed the material
is that you send
me, the better your page will rank in the different search engines.
The entire page may be longer than what you see here but you don't want to have "too much" material on a page or it will
overwhelm the viewer. It is probably best to have no more than three or four vertical screens on a monitor. This page has a
little over
3 screens of material and utilizes two "Back to Top"
buttons for the viewer's convenience.
Please don't waste your time formatting your text to look "just right". Your word processor's output is inconsistent with
webpage requirements and I'll just have to strip all your formatting out before incorporating it into the website.
We can add photos if you wish. In the
right situation, a few well-chosen ones will add some visual interest. A
neighborhood organization, club or personal website might use photos
effectively. Using too many or having the wrong kind on a business website might
not be appropriate.
There are specialized formats for photos posted on a website and I'll be glad to do
the basic Photoshop work (cropping, sizing, formatting, etc.) for you at no
additional charge. And if a caption is appropriate, I will be glad to add that
as well.
In general, large photos tend to take over a webpage but this may be a
design choice for you depending on your intended layout. Using a too-small photo
should be avoided because it just isn't very appealing
to a viewer. Having too many pictures on a page may become overwhelming to a
site visitor unless they are displayed in an appropriate photo gallery page.
Copyright- and royalty-free clip art is readily available on the Internet and if you're
looking for something to dress up your website, I suggest you visit
Open Clipart Library or Google:
royalty-free
clip art or
copyright-free clip art
Please don't ask me to use material
copyrighted by others without permission - that's only looking for trouble. I am not very artistic,
but if you send me something to work from, I'm sure I can adapt it to your
requirements.
Back to Top
There are many backgrounds (the image or color which
appears as the background to a webpage) freely available on the Internet for
your use. If you wish to find a particular one, simply Google:
website backgrounds
and you'll find a vast number of possibilities. The images are typically
available as small squares (about 50-100 pixels on a side) and your Internet
browser simply duplicates the image to fill the space available. I often find
what I'm looking for at
GRSites under the Grey category.
Many of the backgrounds you find will not be subtle enough to use effectively
- something too "in-your-face" will offend visitors or make it impossible for them to
read the text on your page. In either case, they will likely leave your site immediately. Backgrounds
may be easily changed at any time if you desire to have a different look.
I have chosen a barely noticeable background image for the pages on this website.
As we proceed with your website construction, we can try out a variety of
backgrounds to see what looks good in your situation.
I am somewhat color-blind and will have to depend on you for guidance in
this area. To ensure that we're discussing the same color, I suggest that
you visit Wikipedia and check out their
Color page.
If you reference your desired color for a website item by the appropriate
HTML name or Hex code, I'll know exactly which color you're talking about.
If you need something that's in between two listed colors, please be
prepared for some back-and-forth between us before we get everything nailed
down to your satisfaction.
Eventually we will be working with a first draft of your website. It
will, of course, contain typos and glitches no matter how carefully we have
edited the material. Or we'll see something that completely escaped both of
us the first time through. For small corrections, simple reference the
particular page and describe the changes you want made.
Major revisions are best handled by selecting the particular paragraphs,
Copy-Pasting them into your email program and making any desired changes
there. When you send me the new material, I'll simply substitute it as
needed. If it's not obvious where the material goes (such as a ginormous
revision), please give me some information as to what I should do with it.
There will be a flurry of activity while we set up your hosting account,
transfer the hosting service and domain name registration, draft the various pages and then finally "go
live" (get your site online). Rest assured that everything will eventually settle down and you'll have a running site.
Typically, I will leave the very generic Home page provided by your hosting service in place while we get everything
else up to speed. The developing part of the site will not be accessible from this
temporary Home page until we're ready to switch over to a working website. Having a non-publicly available website
up and running for your inspection during the initial editing process will give
us an opportunity to adjust colors, images, layouts, etc. until you are
satisfied.
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