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As aforementioned, the World Wide Web is chockfull of websites that
constantly break the rules over what an easy-to-navigate, professional looking
website should look like. Frames added for the wrong effect, tiled, patterned
backgrounds, and improper frame structure are some of the sins committed by the
treacherous amateur webmasters of today. Let's discuss some more "untricks of
the trade" in designing a website for your business.
How long would you wait for a Web page to load? Three minutes? Forty five
seconds? Statistics indicate that unless a user is notified it will take 10
seconds for a page to load, they will press the back button and hightail it out
of there. This means having an unoptimized webpage is an absolute no-no. Before
uploading a static page to a website, take care of the following precautions:
1) Remove all worthless comments from the HTM
2) Review your page layouts and discard all images that aren't pertinent to your
website (i.e. a smiley face in a golf club retailer site.)
3) Use an image-compressing package like Easy Thumbnail to reduce the file size
of your images. Use GIFCruncher as well and become acquainted with thumbnail
software.
4) Mark up larger images with the elusive HTML tag so that the use's
browser can load the : after the rest of the content has appeared.
5) Add labels to each picture so that users can know what the image is before it
appears.
Another misused website concept that amateur webmasters tend to pursue is Java.
Noadays, people are using it to run text scrollers, clocks, and other
"technological perky" effects on a website. They don't realize that java applets
download very slowly and adds nothing but clutter to their page. In addition,
small MIDI files (music files) shouldn't be added. Huge animations should be
avoided as well. Animations and MIDI files have only served to slow down webpage
loading. The only time these concepts should be implemented is if it serves a
useful purpose. Otherwise, use your head in determining that your professional
website does not need a 40 second audio file that takes 10 minutes to download.
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