For everyone who has a Web Page

For everyone who has their own Web Site, these tips are offered. Each is based on years of practical experience. This message is a stream of consciousness; cope.

Your Site name is important. If you are a Justice of the Peace, as I am, a name with "Wedding", "Marriage", "Justice of the Peace" or some other word meaningful to prospective couples is going to help your Site be found by search engines. Having your name as the name of your Site may feed your ego, but it won't help search engines find your Site if searchers are looking for your product not your name. (And the chances are poor that potential customers are looking for you by searching for your name.)

If you don't already know HTML, you can learn the basics in less than an hour. HTML for Dummies is a good basic book. If you rely on a software package to generate your Pages you'll get way too much junk in your Pages. Microsoft's tools are the absolute worst. They assume that everyone uses Internet Explorer and creates Pages that are not portable among browsers. Remember, our Sites have to be usable by people who use PCs and Macs, Windoze and UNIX, are sighted and visually challenged, deaf and hearing.

Don't play music or any other audio without the visitor's permission. It is rude. The visitor could be web surfing at work, and hearing Here comes the Bride! could lead to your visitor being fired. (I'm staying away from the ethics of surfing while "working.") Consider unsolicited sound to be the audio version of email spam.

Use, but don't overuse, the keywords that you put in the list in the head of the HTML. (If that sentence doesn't make sense, talk to me directly.)

For pity sake, spell check every Page every time you change it. Look for homophones (their, they're, there) that you've used by accident. Watch out for "its" and "it's", and other traps. Use correct, but not stuffy, English (or Spanish, or ....) If you are a professional, sound like it. If you're not, fake it.

You must validate all of your Pages with a tool such as validator.W3.Org (notice there's no "WWW"). Search engines will appreciate it, and visitors will appreciate it even more. (Again, if this paragraph doesn't make sense to you, talk to me.) Even if you do not create your own Pages (and maybe especially if you don't!), validate 'em. Don't take any excuses from your WebMaster. The World Wide Web Consortium is smarter than your WebMaster. The W3C sets the standards; follow the standards and everyone who visits your Site will see what you see.

Flash is pointless. (Flash is a program that produces flashing, scrolling, fancy graphics.) Flash is often used in "Welcome" screens that the visitor has to endure or click to avoid. Annoying! It wastes resources, including visitors' time. People will move on in nine seconds, typically, if they don't see something that interests them. No matter how pretty and clever your WebMaster thinks it is, search engines don't like it. Next.

Sentences which begin with "You", "Your", and other second-person pronouns are much more friendly than "I", "My", and other first-person pronouns. It's not about you; it's about your visitors. You exist to serve your customers.

Search engines love content. So do brides and grooms. For example, a NJ bride called me because she found photos of a beach site she liked in CT. She said she called me first because she found what she liked on my Site. Content attracts buyers, no matter what business you're in!

Don't make it hard for people to contact you! Put your phone number on every Page. Bottom, top, wherever; just be consistent. When you change your phone number (move, etc.), update it on every Site on the Web. Update everywhere you advertise, Google, your own Site, and everywhere else. People will not try to find you if they hear "The number you have dialed is not in service." They'll think that you are out of business.

If you list your email address anywhere on the Web, you'll get spam. Lots of it. There are ways to minimize it, but you can't eliminate it. Deal.

Use one URL (Web Site address) for each business (or type of business). The more places that point to your URL the higher ranked your Site will be. Bottom line: More visits == more customers. (I'm not willing to debate the fine points of this tip. If you know facts that contradict me, then you know why they contradict me. Let's not confuse innocent people with esoterica.)

Use your URL on all your advertising. Just having a Site does not mean you'll get traffic. Your Site can answer many more questions than your business card or brochure. And your Site can do it at 1:33 AM, without waking you up.

Your Site should contain the latest information. If the laws that apply to your type of business in your state change, update your Site. (That means that you've got to keep up with changes, too!) If you officiate at weddings, as I do, photos should show not just the current season of the year; some people (gasp) plan ceremonies months in advance. Yeah, the beach looked nice in July; the wedding is in December. Sure, the fall colors were nice; the ceremony is in March.

Have links to local vendors. Reciprocal links are nice. Play nicely. Praise musicians, florists, caterers, etc., who do good work. What goes around comes around. It costs you a few bytes, but it could earn you big rewards.

Having spent more than 25 years as a designer / developer, I've seen some horrors. I will not review your Site for free. I'll just take a brief look, usually out of curiosity. If you would like help, ask a specific question here so that everyone can learn.

Blessed are they who link, for they shall be linked to.

All opinions expressed are mine, and are not necessarily those of my employer. Comments are welcome; spam is not. Contrasting opinions are welcome; attacks are not.