1. Decide which domain name will be your main domain

This will be the domain name you add to your business cards and publicize everywhere else.  Make sure everyone in your organization is aware.

2. Redirect all other domain names to your main domain

When I say redirect I mean redirect.  If you type in one of these additional domain names the address in your browser bar should change to the main domain (go to www.texelgraphics.com to see what we mean).  You should never stay on this additional domain.  This causes confusion for your visitors and search engines will actually see this additional domain as an additional website and you’ll be competing against yourself.  Not good.

If you are unsure how to do this, it is done with a 301 redirect and the code is added to an .htaccess file.  Here is the code I use on this website:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^texelgraphics.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.texelgraphics.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.texelsoft.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I won’t go into the technical specifications of this code, but if you want to learn more I found this article, which offers a good explanation.

3. Relax knowing you’ve handled your multiple domain names in the best way possible

That’s right.  Relax.  You’re all set.  Down the road you could always use one of the additional domain names for an additional website.  But as long as all the additional domain names are pointing at your website make sure they are redirected using the simple steps above.

The problem with the current system (aka everyone wants a .com domain name)

In 1985 when the first top level domains (or TLDs) were created the idea was that certain organizations would register their domain with the TLD that corresponded with their business.  The first six TLDs were:

• .com (for commercial businesses)
• .net (for networking and internet service providers)
• .org (for organizations and individuals)
• .gov (for government agencies)
• .edu (for education institutions)
• .mil (for US military institutions)

In theory this worked fine.  However over time what happened was that .com became the most popular TLD and everyone wanted a .com domain name.  Furthermore, there were no restrictions to registering a .com domain name even if you weren’t a commercial endeavor and a free for all ensued.  Today there are nearly 77 million registered domain names and the highest percentage of those use .com as the TLD.  So if you are a new business starting out, getting a hold of a .com domain name that folks will remember will be quite a challenge.

Over time ICANN has created new top level domains (.name, .biz and the like) thinking that folks would utilize those TLDs when registering a new domain name (and relieve the stress on the .com domain names).  However registration of domains using these newer TLDs has been sparse at best.  People are more likely to make up words to keep the .com TLD (for example flickr.com) than settle on a less popular TLD (say, flicker.biz).

Enter the new top level domains

The new proposal ICANN put forward at their July 2008 meeting essentially opens up TLDs for registration.  Don’t like the .biz or .net extension?  No problem.  Create your own!  The proposal allows for any combination of up to 64 characters to be used as a TLD.  This essentially creates nearly limitless possibilities for domain names.  As an example, if I wanted to brand my company name as a TLD I could do that and register .tunnel7.

I think this proposal is a great idea.  Rather than have ICANN slowly debate and release TLDs that may or may not catch on we may soon be able to create any TLD we want.  With this ability companies and organizations can get creative with how they want to use domain names, which will more likely result in these alternate TLDs becoming popular.  (An example I’ve seen would be Intel registering .inside so they could then use intel.inside for their domain name.  Pretty cool, huh?)

Now before you get too excited I should mention that this is still a proposal.  However, from what I read the proposal looks to be approved early in 2009 and registration of these new top level domains could happen as early as the second quarter of 2009.

I can definitely see this working.  I don’t think it will happen quickly.  I’m sure .com will still be the most popular TLD for years to come but breaking the stranglehold of the .com TLD for those searching for a domain name will certainly be welcome.  Perhaps in the not too distant future our digging will turn up more options resulting in better domain names.

Who does this kind of work?  The reality is I could easily have nodded my head and started on some website marketing efforts, but I would be doing these people a great disservice.  Instead, I opted to have a discussion with them about the weaknesses in their current website that will severely handicap their marketing efforts.  In the course of those discussions I noticed three similarities.

1. Bargain basement cost

All three of these companies had simply gone the route of paying the lowest price for their website.

2. Poor development process

In two out of three cases these websites were produced and up and running in two weeks.  No discussion of website goals, website content, competitive analysis … nothing.

3. Errors errors errors

All three of these websites had many coding errors and not one came close to validating against current standards.  In addition two of the websites had broken links in the main navigation.

Conclusion

I raise this issue because I see this all too often.  This kind of shoddy website building misleads the client and puts up road blocks both in terms of any search engine ranking and, more importantly, retaining visitors to the website.  Yes, all three of these companies have websites but as they are quickly finding out having a website to have a website is an ill conceived idea.  Like any other industry you get what you pay for.  Don’t make the same mistakes these three companies did.  Do yourself a favor and take the time to educate yourself and make a good decision about who will build your website.

Host the website in house

While you could buy a server to host your website in house, I don’t recommend it unless you are a larger company that has a dedicated staff to maintain the server.  A server will require upgrades to software to minimize security threats as well as constant monitoring to ensure up time.  For the small and medium sized businesses I tend to work with, this is not a very good option.

Rent a dedicated hosting server off site

OK, so you know you don’t want to have the physical machine in house.  You could rent a dedicated server at one of the hosting providers.  This takes away the hardware aspect of administration but you will still be responsible for selecting the operating system and keeping the software on the server current.  Like the first option, this one is also one reserved for larger companies with dedicated staff.

Host the website with a dedicated hosting company

For most of my clients this is the best option.  Hosting your website with a dedicated hosting company takes all the headaches of server administration out of your hands and leaves it in the hands of professionals.  The only danger with this option is making sure you use a reliable hosting company.  There are plenty of low cost, bargain basement companies promising the world for very little money.  These are best avoided.

Conclusion

Website hosting is the foundation on which your website is built.  And just like a house, you want to make sure that your foundation is solid.  Paying a little extra now for a reliable website host will save you the headaches of down time and potential costs of moving your website to a new server.

Use hypens, not underscores in your website addresses

I will admit (though I’m somewhat embarrassed to do so) that I didn’t realize what a difference hyphens made in the eyes of search engines.  Consider the following:

Example 1: http://www.domain.com/look_how_smart_i_am

Example 2: http://www.domain.com/look-how-smart-i-am

Now to you (and to me until last week) these two website addresses looked pretty much the same.  In fact in my mind it really came down to a matter of style.  However, that is not the case.  Here is how search engines see the directory path for these two examples:

Example 1: lookhowsmartiam

Example 2: look how smart i am

Now that’s a big difference (and certainly not a matter of style).  Example one translates to jibberish while example two offers unique keywords to be indexed by search engines and a clear benefit in search engine rankings.  Example one is the winner here and going forward I will be using the hyphen instead of the underscore.

Is it a subtle difference?  It sure is but now that you know why would you ever go back to the underscore?

1. Clean up your content

Over the past year your website no doubt has grown.  Now is a great time to review that content and delete anything that is out of date.  Remember, less is more.  For more read my post, The Power of Website Simplicity.

2. Validate your code and improve accessibility

You’re going to hear more and more about website accessibility in the coming year.  Now is the perfect time to get ahead of the game by validating your website code and bring it in line with modern web standards.  Visit the W3C Markup Validation Service to see how your website fares.

3. Conduct an informal usability review

There is no better way to find weaknesses in your website than to ask others to complete specific tasks on your website.  Usability testing can be done easily enough and you’ll be surprised what you can learn. Check out, Usability Testing on the Cheap to get started.

4. Make sure your using one main domain

If you have multiple domain names that you use for your website make sure they are redirecting to one main domain name.  You don’t want to be competing against yourself in search engines or confusing website visitor.  For more read my post, Handling Multiple Domains.

5. Design a new homepage

This is much easier than it sounds.  A good homepage serves as a table of contents for your website and easily evolves to adapt to your changing website goals.  For more read my post, Elements of a Good Hompeage.

6. Think less about website marketing and more about website content

People get crazy obsessed about marketing their website without ever thinking about their own website’s content weaknesses.  Don’t fall into that trap. For more read my post, Why Website Marketing Isn’t Enough.

7. Set at least one clear goal for your website to achieve in the coming year

Goals are great to have in anything you do.  Set at least one clear and measurable goal for your website and work towards it all year long.  You can thank me later.  For more read my post, Website Goals.

8. Review your website analytics

I’m always amazed how little attention people pay to their website analytics.  There is a wealth of information to be found and all of it can help you make better website decisions.  For more read my post, 7 Things You Should Know About Your Website.

9. Look at your website in different browsers

Hopefully you can skip this one but if your website wasn’t thoroughly tested when it was built I suggest taking a look to make sure your website renders and functions in all browsers properly.  For more read my post, The Importance of Website Testing.

10. Make minor adjustments for big improvements

Website changes need not be grand to impact your website in a positive manner.  Keep this in mind and make some minor changes to better connect with your visitors. For more read my post, Redesign or Realign Your Website?

So there you have it.  Ten little spring cleaning tips that can help your website throughout the year.  None of them are terribly difficult or time consuming but all will improve your website.

1. Simplify visual layout

First and foremost a website form (no matter how complex it is) should look easy to complete.  This will encourage visitors to complete the form and guide them through the process of giving you the information you seek from them.  Each form will be unique and spending time in planning its layout is critical.

2. Use <legend> <fieldset> and <label>

Completing a website form is tricky but it’s even trickier for impaired visitors of your website.  To maximize accessibility use <legend> <fieldset> and <label> html tags in your code.  These three tags provide semantic meaning to your form and attach form labels to their associated field in a non-visual way to ensure impaired visitors can complete it.

3. Set the tab index for each field

Once the first field of a website form is completed and the tab button is pushed visitors should be taken to the next item to complete.  Setting the tab index allows you to define this order (as opposed to relying on the browser).  This simplifies the completion of the form and also improves accessibility for visitors who can’t use a mouse.

4. Clearly mark required fields

Determining which form fields must be completed by visitors should be a part of any website form design.  Once this determination is made, be sure your website form clearly indicates what fields are mandatory and what fields are optional.  This will save visitors the frustration of getting unexpected error messages.

5. Provide clear error messages

And speaking of error messages, make sure when a user does receive an error message from an improperly completed form that that error message is useful and written in plain English.  In general an error message should clearly instruct visitors what field they need to fix and guide them back to that field.

6. Use an anti-spam technique

All forms I build now have some technique to prevent the submission of spam entries.  CAPTCHA is a very popular anti-spam technique.  I’ve also used CSS to visually hide a field from human visitors and then use PHP to test if the hidden field is completed (automated spam-bots will fill it in).  Make sure your forms account for these inevitable spam submissions.

7. Test, test and test again

Nothing is more frustrating to website owners than a form that doesn’t work.  The submitted data doesn’t get entered into the database.  A notification email fails to send.  A user gets no confirmation of anything when submitting their information.  All of these things can be avoided with thorough testing of all website forms.  Don’t neglect this step!

Conclusion

Following these steps above will ensure that your website avoids the pitfalls of poorly designed website forms and (even better) ensure that your visitors do not experience the all too common frustrations such forms brings.

Keep all CSS in external files

First and foremost, keep all your CSS code in external files.  Your individual HTML pages should have no CSS code in them other than the call to the stylesheet in the <head> portion of each page.  This ensures a clean separation of design (CSS) and content (HTML) and makes website maintenance exponentially easier.  Here is an example showing how to add a stylesheet to an HTML page:

<link rel=“stylesheet” type=“text/css” media=“screen” href=”/inc/style.css” />>

Keep your CSS files in one directory

I keep all my CSS files in a separate includes directory for good organization as well (typically a directory named “includes” or “inc”).  By keeping all your CSS code together in one location you have a central directory for all CSS code, which will also help with website maintenance in the future.

Never use inline styles

Inline styles are really no better than the old <font> tags.  I can tell you there is nothing more frustrating than making a global change to your main stylesheet only to find that the change is being overwritten by inline styles on certain pages.  (Inline styles overwrite global styles.)  Save yourself the headaches of going through individual pages to clean up inline styles.  Don’t use them.

Use a CSS reset

Browsers have a tendency to interpret default values differently for any given element, which can cause you cross-browser compatibility headaches.  A CSS reset file levels the playing field across all browsers by setting all default values to the same value.  Eric Meyer’s CSS reset file is an excellent example of a reset file.

Use Comments in your CSS files

Just as you can have comments in your HTML files, so to can you in your CSS files.  Comments are also great for delineating sections of your CSS file and for explaining (to future you or someone else working with your code) what a particular block of code does.  Comments in CSS files are defined by this syntax:

/* css comments here */

Organize your CSS logically

Within the CSS file itself it is best to have an organized structure.  For me I organize by the following order: global elements, sections (header, body, footer), forms, tables.  Keep in mind that CSS files inherit so defining global elements first makes sense and getting more specific as you move down can override global elements where needed.

Use IE conditionals

Inevitably you will come across CSS bugs, particularly in older browsers (yes, I’m looking at you IE6!).  Rather than include the fixes for these bugs within you main stylesheet, create a separate stylsheet for the particular version of Internet Explorer causing you the problem.  This ensures that your fix doesn’t cause issues in other browsers.

You can read more about IE conditional comments at quirksmode.org.

Be open to change

I can tell you that with experience you will find better ways to write and organize your CSS files.  Like I mentioned in the opening I’m constantly refining and improving my CSS files and you should be open to such changes.  The internet is constantly changing and staying on top of these changes by adapting your work methods will help keep you ahead of the curve.

The ability to embed fonts in a website

Newer browsers support this ability to embed fonts in a website.  (In fact, soon nearly all modern browsers will.)  However the rub comes from the font foundries (the folks creating the fonts) who don’t want their fonts to be used online for free for fear that the font files can be stolen and reused (rather than purchasing them through legitimate means).

And this is where Typekit comes in.  What Typekit promises is to make it near impossible for someone to grab the font file from a website using it.  In this scenario the font foundries are happy (because their files are secure) and website designers are happy (because we can move past the current font limitations).  It’s a win win for all involved!

A big change for website design

It’s not every day that such a big change comes along in the website design world, but this certainly is one of them.  Typekit will open the door to be able to use any font we wish to in our website designs.  While it may not seem like a big deal to you, this is something that website designers around the world have wanted for many, many years.  I know I’ll be keeping a close eye on Typekit’s progress.

For more about Typekit see the Typekit blog.

Clearly and simply states what you do

Someone coming to your website should, within seconds, be able to understand what you do.  People tend to skim a website as opposed to read so you as a website owner may only have a handful of seconds to impress your user.  Be sure you very clearly and succinctly convey who you do with one simple, well crafted sentence.

Serves as a table of contents

After you get your message across you want to encourage users to delve deeper into your website.  Think of your homepage as a table of contents for what lies within.  With a quick scan of the eyes users should get a good sense of what content they can find on your website and want to click inside.

Is flexible and not static

Being able to quickly and simply spotlight content is critical to a good homepage.  I personally like to use a modular approach, as it works well, is flexible and allows content to be easily changed as goals shift over time.  Plan in advance for this.  A website should not remain static for too long.

Keeps text brief

If you’ve been reading my blog you know I’m a big fan of simplifying.  Nowhere is this more important than on the homepage.  There should be no paragraphs on your homepage.  Think in terms of sentences.  Remember, your homepage is your table of contents.  You want it to be easy to skim and pull users in.  Big blocks of text are not conducive to this.

Eliminates clutter

I’ve worked on projects where people actually start fighting over space on the homepage. In such a scenario it would be OK for these folks to have a website that is cluttered as long as their content is on the homepage.  Don’t make this mistake.  Eliminate the clutter.  While you may feel good about having your content on the homepage, users will simply be overwhelmed and tune out.

Establishes navigation and other website elements

Your homepage should familiarize your users with navigation and common elements that will be used throughout the website.  Think of the last time you walked into an unfamiliar airport or a train station.  In those first moments you get your bearings by taking note of signs and determining you should go.  Your homepage should to the same for your users.

Conclusion

It’s true, your homepage will likely be the most popular page of the website.  Rather than try to fit everything on it think in terms of priority and follow the steps above to make it the best it can be!