A Guide to Websites
Disclaimer: I am not a website expert, nor do I claim that the information below will turn your site into the next facebook. What is written below are my personal opinions based on my own knowledge and experience, and nothing else. With that said, enjoy reading :)For the normal person, visiting a certain website sparks the curious question, "how does s/he do it?"
The "how" of this question can be thousands upon millions of different things. In the case of website owners, it's more of an inside looking out perspective.
Excluding all the piczo/myspace based perverts out there on their forbidden fantasy websites, average aspiring website owners often ask themselves:
How do I increase my traffic?
How do I get more comments?
How do I retain daily visitors?
Why is my website not attracting traffic, it's better than that [random popular site] site!
Is valid coding even important?
Choosing a website name
Most people possess the mentality that as long as they like their website name, then it should be good enough. A website name could be the difference of someone coming back to your site, or forgetting about it.
When choosing a website name, do not overcomplicate it. Keep it short and sweet if you can. People don't like trying over and over to get the spelling or grammar of a website correct just so they can visit it. Not everyone can spell as great as you can. If they can't type in your website name correctly the first and second time, they most likely will give up going to your site. People want to visit websites with creative names! Think about it, which would you rather visit? Vieux Designs or Candy-Corn-Graphics?
Who are you?
Having a website does not mean you have to stricten yourself to professional standards 24/7. There are thousands of blogs out there, so what makes yours worth reading? What makes you stand out? Why should I read your blog, versus another persons?
People love people who make them happy. When I post a comment, I don't want to feel threatened. I want to anticipate a response, instead of dread one. Make people feel comfortable on your site. Have an opinion on current issues, blog about your day and let your personality out. Although I must issue a warning, be careful with your 'emotional blogs'. Sure, we all have off days sometimes, but you must recognize when it's most appropriate to post them. People do not want to come to a site with a depressing and empty atmosphere.
Site Presentation
The way your site is presented to the public is crucial to how serious people will take you. The better your site looks, the more people will acknowledge it as a quality resource/blog (whatever it's there for). Make sure that your site looks put together, because if you put together a layout with coding in 10 minutes, it will show. Do not quickly put together something just for the sake of having something up. Take your time with setting up your website.
Ideas for:
Your Sidebar - Keep your sidebar short and simple. I don't want to know your lifestory, nor do I care to know about your last 50 recent blogs.
What to add
Add a welcome message pertaining to your website. What is it? A blog? A resource site? Let first time visitors know. You could also squeeze something in about yourself.
Add layout information and credits. If people love your layout, they usually like to know what font you used, where you got your brushes, and so on.
I like to know about the owners of a site, it would be alright to add in a section about yourself, but don't overdo it.
What NOT to add on your sidebar:
What I'm doing right now. Let's face it, no one really cares about what color shirt you're wearing, who you're currently talking to, or what you just ate - so let's not go there.
Calendars - People will already know what day it is, trust me.
Music Players - See MUSIC below.
LINK ME with buttons - Could be easily put on a seperate page.
Recent Blogs - More waste of space...if people are so inclined to see more of your previous blogs, they can find out on their own.
Recent Commenters - Why clog up space on your sidebar with something that has to do with your blog? Instead, use your blog space to show recent commenters.
About Me - There's nothing wrong with wanting to let your visitors know who you are, but there's something wrong with HOW you do it:
Jessica. 19. MICHIGAN. in college. starbucks. LOVES!! coffee. BOYS~ pepsi. my cellph0ne. DISLIKES people who stare. animals who attack me.
That was annoying, right? Yea, it should've been. You could write the same exact thing, but in a better way:
I'm Jessica. I'm 19 years old and currently reside in Michigan. I love coffee, so if you ever need me, just hit up a Starbucks. First table, second seat to the left. I'm obsessed with my cellphone and I hate people who stare, and animals who think it's cool to attack me.
Better? Oh, yea, I'm not obsessed my phone...and...I love animals.
Links:
Try not to go crazy with your links. Don't make them smaller, or bigger than your regular text. Make them readable in sense of both font and color, with simple hovers.
Font Size
I shouldn't need binoculars to browse through certain websites. We all know websites should be personal, but they don't need to ruin someone's vision. Go easy with your font size - make sure it's not too small, and not too big. You can find the latter.
Staff
We all know that being an owner of a website has it's responsibilities and it may be hard to deal with them on your own. But I really do believe people get a little carried away with the hiring 'staff members'. In my opinion, I enjoy visiting websites that are more personalized, with one owner. Because of that fact that I know that the person works on everything by themself, I respect them so much more, versus another website with 50 staff members. Websites with many staff members often lose my interest quickly. They often remind me of commercial websites and not so much personalized websites that are much more friendly. Hiring staff members can change the entire outlook of your website, so if you are considering it, be careful with your decision.
Advertisements
I'll tell you straight up, if a site has pop ups, I exit immediately. Popups are deadly, so do not use them.
If you'd like to offer advertisements, make them subtle, color cordinated (match them with your css so they blend in) and place them appropriately. When I'm browsing through your resources I don't want to have a neon green advertisement for foot cream in my face.
Swearing
Swearing really does make a website look tacky, distasteful and immature. Newsflash: You're not hardxcore if you swear. Your visitors will not fear you, unless they're 10 year old die hard Jesus lovers. Things can be said without vulgar language. If you are a website owner with a bad habit of swearing, calm it down a bit. It actually turns off some people [especially younger crowds] if someone has excessive swearing in their blog.
Music
I really find it annoying when I visit a website and they have an automatic music player. Many people who browse websites are most likely already listening to music. When your Hilary Duff song on auto play loop is playing and clashing with the one your visitor is already listening to, it really begins to be a problem. If I visit a website with music, I just click the BACK button and forget it. If you like a particular song and want to recommend it, post it on your blog or make a page so people can download it themselves. Don't force music on your visitors.
How do I increase my traffic?
Increasing your traffic isn't as easy, or as hard as you may think. Here is a list of things you can do to increase your traffic:
1. Affiliate and exchange links with other sites.
2. Advertise on appropriate websites. If you're a graphic design site, you probably don't want to advertise on a political blog.
3. Use keywords on your pages! Got a tutorial on cutting psds? Re-use the keyword. Titles, headers, and bolded words are some important things that show up in search engines. Search engines are what a majority of your traffic may come from, so it's extremely important that you get the highest rank possible!
Web Relations
Get to know other website owners! This is important in getting yourself known. Whether you want to get to know me ( hey, I'm up for that! [: ) or another small website owner, go for it. Join competitions when they're available, offer help to others, make someone a layout if you're feeling generous. Develop relations with different people, comment on their blogs daily or even exchange contact information. They might be of help in the future, or just make a pretty awesome friends :)
Online drama and when to open that big mouth of yours.
Our part of the internet is just a web spun from thousands of lies and people with just not enough school hours and homework. There are times when it's alright to engage in online drama, and other times when it's best to step away from the computer.
If you are a new website just starting out, you should avoid as much drama as possible. Accompanied by a fragile blank reputation waiting to be filled, new website owners should be careful how they present themselves to the public. As a new website, you are not yet established your second chances do not come easy. If you are caught up in an argument on your blog over the fact that you decided to engage yourself in the 'chanel vs. gucci' message board drama, people will sync your site with your bad attitude, and your website will take a sudden early dive towards the dirt. With no prior introduction of you, people will hardly sympathize and their new thoughts of your 'devious-dreams' website are not going from ugly to pretty anytime soon.
If for any reason drama is brought upon you, the best thing to do is directly contact the person in private, or ignore it. The only reason why I take a whack at the dramatic blogs every once in a [long] while is because over the course of having swimchick for three years, my real visitors know what sort of person I am. Through my blogs, contests and updates, I've already established myself. Whether some old man on his website says so, they know I'm clearly not some psycho tweenie trying to cause drama because I'm jealous and want attention [hahaha]. Establish yourself and your audience - then you can open your mouth.
Why is my website not attracting traffic, it's better than that [random] site!
Putting the blame on another site because they are receiving more attention than you is the wrong way to look at things. It doesn't matter if Bob the baker has invalid coding and mis-matching colors, if he is getting traffic to his site, he must be doing something right. It's a scary thought at times, but if you take the opportunity wisely you can benefit from it yourself.
Look at another site with more traffic and ask yourself,
What are they doing that I'm not? How do they approach and react to things? What have they done in the past that has been successful? How does my website look in comparison to theirs?
The key to growing is to examine and keep up with your competition. Stalk those suckers! Okay, don't actually....stalk them. Heh, we're not getting that intense. The main objective is to notice and study: how they set their pages up, how their links are on certain pages, what kind of content do they have or even how they word things. Read their tutorials, take in new tips and effects and learn from it [but don't rip it off].
How do I keep people coming back to my site?
Daily updates reassure the visitor that your site is active, and everytime they come back they can expect something new. This is the only reason why someone would come back to your site, for something NEW. Whether it's a new blog, brushes, or even an article, keep your visitors updated on what's coming up or what's going on. No one likes a dead site. If your last blog was in September of 05, you better get into the habit.
As for retaining daily visitors, that's a little more work on your part. Comment people back, affiliate with people, help out others and be involved in the web community. My advice to anyone, refrain from joining teenage diseased message boards - they will just pollute your life with superficial fashionista ideals and unnecessary drama. Oh, and they're annoying.
Is valid coding of any importance?
To an extent, yes. In most cases, valid coding will ensure that your website works in all broswers. If your website is looking perfect in IE and way off in Firefox, your firefox visitors might not visit your site due to it not working. Valid coding is also easier on you, makes your site better to navigate through, will give you less problems and may be beneficial to your traffic. I'm not the coding expert, but valid coding is the way to go.
Not getting the results you'd hoped for? Stay optimistic and keep at it. New sites never have it easy with gaining traffic. But I can tell you from personal experience, if you are dedicated and put in genuine hard work, you will eventually see results. Even the smallest amount of growth is still growth.
