Web Site Design Tips
Twenty simple ways to improve your site.
1. Buy your own domain name.
2. Do not use a free server. Get yourself a real host. The average cost is around $10 per month and it makes a nearly 100% difference in how your customers view your site and how it performs in the search engines.
3. Make your site faster by removing unnecessary images. The focus should be on your artwork, not on fancy backgrounds, graphics, and especially not on anything animated. Use Photoshop and ImageReady to reduce the size and load time of your remaining images. Make them beautiful but small. Crop out small areas to show detail, rather than loading a huge image.
4. Don't copy, duplicate, or republish. If your site is just republished content from some other source then it isn't useful. Delete unoriginal content and delete content that is duplicated within your own site.
5. Do not use a splash page. Especially do not use a flash intro page. Every page on your site should be useful and fast loading.
6. Take out all of the unnecessary flash, javascript, animations, redirects, and so on, until there is nothing left but a beautiful, fast loading site that is dense with original, useful content.
7. Don't overuse keywords. Communicate clearly by writing naturally.
8. Don't put lists of keywords on your page or try to stuff keywords in alt, image, meta, or any other tag.
9. Keep your webpages small. If a page starts to get too big, try dividing it up into two or more pages.
10. Don't be generic. Be specific. For example, instead of dividing your site into generic sections labeled as Gallery 1, Gallery 2, etc., divide your site into specific sections and use descriptive labels such as Animal Art, Nature Photography, and so on.
11. Don't use tiny or invisible text.
12. Use clear and consistent navigation.
13. Don't link to low quality sites. Do not exchange links with sites just for the sake of the link.
14. Create links to sites that you believe will benefit your visitors.
15. Don't use pop-ups.
16. Don't use automated "link managers" or any other type of automated link submission service or software.
17. Use a spell checker, and hire a proof reader.
18. Use an html validator. Perfect is probably best but sometimes errors are not so much errors as they are "non-standard html" and that's okay. Ask friends, family, and strangers to review and critique your site. Continue to do this until you get no bad reviews.
19. Don't play music on your site.
20. Believe in your site and never give up.
More Help
Webmaster World
Google Information for Webmasters
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
