In my last article I published a list of “TEN DO’s” from the 1998 edition of “Web Publishing for Dummies”, today we review ten things the authors thought you should NOT do. You might be surprised, as I was, that all ten are still applicable today.

The great thing about this book (if you ignore references to CompuServe, Prodigy and GeoCities) is that it was written before the search engines moved to the front of everyone’s mind. The information presented is primarily focused on creating a better experience for your visitors, and that is something that we should all be working towards.

Take a moment or two and review this list – did I miss anything?

1)  DON’T inadvertently limit your audience

Be careful when designing your pages not to inadvertently limit your audience by using some oddball feature that can’t be read by large numbers of people who use different Web browsers. Stick to basic HTML and Netscape additions through Netscape Navigator Version 2.0. Think twice before using HTML frames, Java programs, or ActiveX programs; many people won’t be won’t be able to access them. Warn people if you u se nonstandard features. Often providing alternative pages, such as text-only versions of your pages, is worthwhile. And including links to the software that works with your pages often pays-off; a link to Netscape if you use Navigator-specific tags, or a link to the RealAudio site if you include RealAudio sound, are two good examples.

This is still true, however, this advice is all-too-often ignored.  While the various browser makers are getter better about following standards, some still offer “extended capabilities” that some developers take advantage of; ignoring the fact that the rest of the world probably will see none of their hard work.  A larger problem though is the remaining site-owners that insist on having their site mostly in flash.  Years ago people were leery of flash because not everyone had it, and the download for the player was large (based on slower connection speeds), eventually though the folks at Adobe managed to get flash pre-installed on almost all machines.  This made some owners and developers think is was OK to go 100% flash.  WRONG. Aside from the SEO issues (that’s a whole other post), there are millions of people that access the web via mobile devices that have no idea what to do with your flash pages.

2)  DON’T abuse netiquette

Abusing the etiquette of the Internet is easy to do and can bring you a lot of negative attention. If you make any serious offenses, your Web service provider’s server may remove your page. And you can even get into legal problems. Avoid dubious practices such as spamming, sending unwanted e-mail to publicize your site; flaming, being fervently disparaging of other people or other Web pages; or putting up offensive material without some kind of warning label. Netiquette is an amorphous and evolving area of online behavior, so you may want to join a Web-oriented newsgroup where you can ask questions before publishing. Also, check out this site for more info: www.fau.edu/rinaldi/netiquette.html (link no longer valid).

Netiquette is as important now as it was then, just the ways people can ignore it have changed.  I used to say “if you wouldn’t do it in front of your mother, don’t do it on the ‘net”.  Then I moved to Texas (it’s hard to believe what people here will do in front of their mothers).  Even if you WOULD do something in front of your mother, the web may not be ready to see it.  Don’t make assumptions about anything – ever.  Ask lots of questions, participate in the community.  After you know what they want – make sure you have at it.

3)  DON’T “borrow” content without asking

Make sure that content you get from the Web to use on your own Web page is labeled as being freely available for reuse, or else get permission to reuse it. Most people are quite happy to help if you ask nicely and credit their work. The best part is that you make some good contacts with other interesting people. You also keep the law on your side.

Stealing is wrong people, no matter what you call it or how you do it.  Aside from the legal and ethical issues, this is what the search engines call “duplicate content” and it’s a good way to get your site dropped from the listings.  You want good content? Create it yourself, or pay somebody to do it for you.

4)  DON’T make your site hard to navigate

Beginners often organize their pages so that their sites are hard to navigate. If your site has more than two levels, you should give some thought as to how your visitors will navigate it. Nobody likes wandering from link to link with no idea what is where or having to follow ten links to find one piece of information. Keep the relationship between your pages simple. Make it clear which links are internal to your own site and which go out to other sites. Provide an index page or a common menu. And make navigation work consistently throughout the site.

Good site structure is becoming even more important, at the 2010 SMXAdvanced conference, one speaker used a slide that said something like “site structure + SEO = BFF”.  This is another case of the engines liking something that is good for users.  Users have always liked it when it’s easy for them to get around a site and find what they want – now the engines like it too.

5)  DON’T abuse graphics and multimedia

The biggest mistake beginning Web authors- and some experts- make is overusing graphics on a page. Keep in mind that not everyone has fast, expensive T1 lines (special high-bandwidths phone lines) wired directly to their home PCs; by far, the greatest majority of folks receive your web page via a more limited 28.8 Kbps modem. Keep your page size, including text and graphics, under 100K. Here are ways that you can do this without sacrificing design flexibility;

• Convert all photos to JPEG format.
• Use simple icons and banners- images without very many colors or complex textures-in FIG format
• Lay out your site to limit the amount of graphics on any one page, adding pages if you need to display more graphics
• Use thumbnail icons to give access to larger images

All those strategies make your pages smaller and faster for others to download. Your Net surfers will thank you.

Raise your hand if you ever connected to the ‘net via a dial-up connection…bonus points if you remember what your “baud rate” was.

Of course page load times are still important, though I can’t imagine a non-mobile page being under 100k anymore.  Once again (you may get sick of hearing this) the search engines are mirroring what users like;  Users want fast load times and the engines have started putting more emphasis on it as well.  Even though most homes now have super-fast connections, and even mobile devices are getting faster, you’ll want to make sure you tweek every ounce of speed out of your site.

6)  DON’T forget ALT tags and text-equivalent menus

Another basic mistake is not using text-equivalent menus forgetting that many people surf the Net without graphics turned on. Who would turn off graphics, you ask?

Many home user turn off graphics to speed things along, downloading only the graphics that they really need. Some people pay a high hourly rate for their Internet access, especially in much of the non-Western world, and turn off graphics to save money on their connection time. Others receive Web pages via e-mail because they don’t have a direct Internet connection. And some people who are visually impaired use the web with software that translates text-but not graphics-into spoken words. Always use the ALT tag to provide text equivalents to your graphics, as described in Chapter 7. Using the ALT tag is easy to do and will make it possible and easier for all these people to access your content.

It’s somewhat disturbing to me that the primary reason (according to the authors) to use alt-tags was for potential cost savings for users and the last reason was for screen readers/visually impaired.  Sadly, it’s only slightly better now.  Most people include alt text in their images because it helps with search engine indexing and the fact that it helps with screen readers is a nice bonus.

7)  DON’T forget the basics

Your site may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if you forget to include contact information for yourself in the site, how will you find out that you misspelled “bureaucracy” all over the place? Similarly, you won’t get many orders for your spiffy new widget if you put the ordering information five levels down in a web page called “fruit bat guano statistics-1876.”

More basics:

• Use mailto: tags (HTML tags used to specify your e-mail address; for example, <A HRES=*MAILTO:comments@mysite.com>).
• Include a copyright notice
• Add an index
• give credit where credit is due
• Make the important info prominent. Be ready to revise, based on user feedback.

OK, this literally made me laugh.  You have a book “for dummies” and assume they know the basics and are reminding them not to forget them.  Alrighty then.  How about instead of waiting for a site visitor to tell you about your spelling mistakes, you use this new thing we have now…maybe you’ve heard of it – “spell-check”.  But otherwise, yes – do remember to include your contact info, and make it easy for visitors to use. Do have both a site index and a menu, and for the LAST bullet (which should have been first)… make important content easy to find, and adjust if it’s wrong.

8)  DON’T start by setting up your own Web server

There are several “easy-to-use” Web server packages on the market, and Web server capability is even being built into Macs and PCs. But even with these efforts, buying, setting up, and maintaining a Web server can become the most expensive, most complicated, and most frustrating part of Web publishing. Luckily, you can use the free services described in this book, or paid services, to put your content on someone else’s Web server while you learn the other tricks of the trade. Then, as your knowledge and experience grow, consider setting up your own Web server.

I don’t think most people would even consider this an option any more, thankfully there are lots and lots of powerful and affordable web hosting companies available – I’m a fan of hotgator.com hostgator.com.  There are very few cases where it’s necessary to maintain your own server.  Additionally, the phrase “easy-to-use” should never be used to described any web server package.

9)  DON’T forget the “World” in the World Wide Web

Remember that your Web pages are available and accessible to the whole world. Think a bit about that foreign audience. Is it worthwhile to include some foreign language content? Do you use colloquialisms that may not be understood by your foreign Net surfers? How do your pages look to your overseas colleagues who view them through the slow transoceanic Net link? Will your humorous or risqué content offend someone in another country of culture?

When you become a Web publisher, you also become a global citizen and your Web pages play on a global stage. Think through the meaning of your page in advance.

This really boils down to knowing your audience – and being able to adapt if needed.  Usually, a site’s content will fall into a consistent them or category and people who want to read about that content will understand most of how you write about it, regardless of where the live. However, writing for an international audience does take a little forethought.

10)  DON’T be afraid to learn more

Web publishing is not rocket science. It is computer science, but it’s relatively easy computer science. You’re not trying to land the space shuttle here- and chances are, lives are not at stake. Experiment, try weird things. Ask for feedback. Never be afraid to learn complex and hard stuff. (It’s only complex and hard because you don’t understand it yet!) Neat stuff is being developed (and some cool stuff is already out there) that will make Web publishing even more exciting- VRML, Java, new browsers and publishing tools, groupware, Net-based games, and online business infrastructure. All this new stuff is understandable and usable by normal folks like you. Don’t be intimidated. You can use all of them. (If you’ve come this far, you’ve got what it takes!)

Not only should you not be afraid to learn more – you should do your best to always be learning more.  Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, rarely do you learn something by doing it correctly.  Be sure to document how you do things, what works and what doesn’t – this sort of testing will make your life easier.

There you have it – Ten Web Publishing DON’Ts, straight from the web design time machine.

What did you do then that you find yourself  NOT doing today?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

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How many of you have ever wished there was an easier, faster, more efficient method of reaching out to your student body than the traditional methods of newsletters, flyers, or even campus e-mail? How many of you have your own blog? How many have a MySpace or FaceBook page loaded up with pictures from your last family outing? So why not take a few of those “fun” things you already do from home and use them at work? Web sites taking advantage of the social aspects of Web 2.0 make interaction with students almost easy.

While reading this article won’t make you a social media expert, it will hopefully give you some insight into deciphering the terms and tools of this generation, as well as a few suggestions on how you may be able to use some of these tools to reach out to your students.

Greater interactivity: Digg it

Web 2.0 is a not a new version of the World Wide Web, but rather a new way to use the Web, a new way to interact with people and the things you discover. The old Web was more like a billboard along the highway; people put things up and hoped you would slow down long enough to read it. If you liked something you saw, and could remember where it was, you could send an e-mail to the author or your friends. But that was the extent of your interaction. Web sites incorporating Web 2.0 tools are more interactive, more engaging. Web 2.0 sites are more like a community and less like a billboard.

One of the most commonly used tools in the Web 2.0 collection are comments. Unlike the billboard, now if you find something you like, you can post a comment on the page telling the author what you think of his or her work, or click an icon and send the link to all your friends at once.

Social bookmarking sites such as Furl, del.icio.us (pronounced “delicious”), Digg, or Stumbleupon make it extremely easy for Web site visitors to share things they find interesting with each other. You may have a favorite that you use already. A simple click of an icon shares the page with all of your online friends.

As an example of how you can use this technology in the financial aid arena, let’s take a look at the social book marking feature on TG’s Adventures in Education Web site at www.AIE.org. When you hover your mouse over each icon, you’ll notice links to multiple bookmark, blogging, and social networking sites as well. Adventures in Education has only been making use of this technology for a short time, but has seen tremendous results, with thousands of visitors submitting pages and thousands more following the links provided to them by their friends. While you may think it’s some sort of rocket science to add these icon-type linky thingies to your pages, it’s actually pretty easy. At most, you may have to buy donuts for your Web team so they’ll add the few lines of code to your pages for you. How simple is that?

Twitter while you work

Ever wish there was a way to tell everyone you know – and maybe a bunch you don’t know – exactly what you are doing throughout your day? If you answered yes, then Twitter is for you – and coincidently, many of the students on your campus. Think of Twitter like text messaging on steroids. Create your account and let your students know about it. Even better, search for them to see if they have accounts and add them as friends. Because Twitter limits you to a message size of only 140 characters, students are more likely to at least scan your message and not roll their eyes and delete it, like they may be doing now with your e-mails. As you send more updates, hopefully the word will spread about their usefulness and more students will subscribe to your messages.

How many times has a student walked into your office and said “Hi, I don’t need any money today, I’m just stopping by to see what you’re up to?” Most likely never. That means that most students have no idea what goes on in your office when they’re not trying to get some of that “free money” they know you’re hoarding. How to let them in behind the scenes? A blog may be the answer. The casual, conversational writing style adapted by most bloggers makes these sites easy to read and certainly easier to follow than the “spit and polish” formal methods that most of us are used to reading, and let’s admit it, writing too. Blogs tend to talk to people and not at them. Sit down and write a paragraph or two a week about what actually goes on in your office. Show your students that there are real people with real jobs in there. It could make a difference in how they see you and your role next time they want some of your free money.

MySpace and Facebook are like golden nuggets of social goodness with all the tools you need wrapped up in one pretty little package. Ready to start the office blog? You can do that. Want to post 100 photos from an on-campus event? You can do that. Want a place where students can post questions or comments 24 hours a day? You can do that, too. Unlike traditional Web sites, these Web 2.0 sites are more interactive and more engaging. Social networking makes your office more like a warm, inviting community and less like an inert road sign.

Now it’s up to you to pick one or two of these fun (and kind of scary) new things to try on your own. How do you know which ones? Step out in the hall, grab a few students and ask them what they’d like you to try out first. It won’t all be easy, and you might even make some mistakes. In the end, however, you will have learned a few things and probably make a difference to a few students who might otherwise have been missed.

Web 2.0 Tech terms

Feeling left behind on the latest tech terms your students throw around? Here’s a quick guide to help get you up to date:

Web 2.0 is a term used to collectively describe the tools and features found on newer, more social-minded Web sites. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. Many of the technology components of “Web 2.0″ have existed since the early days of the Web.

A Blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function more as personal online diaries. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Social Bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of Web pages on the Internet. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to Web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public.

Social Networking Web sites provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, blogging, discussion groups, and so on. Social networking has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information with one another in today’s society. Various social networking Web sites are being used by millions of people everyday on a regular basis, and it now seems that social networking is a part of everyday life.

This article originally appeard in “TG Connections”, a publication of TG for the Financial Aid Community.

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