7 Steps to Optimum Website Performance

Get the most from your web pages by checking them after
they have first been launched, and then on a regular,
ongoing basis to make sure that each of these steps checks
out properly.

When You First Launch Your Website

1. Bookmark your website. Now, re-open your browser and see
if an icon other than the browser icon shows up before your
URL. You can easily get your own custom favicon to load
with your page. Also try to type in your website without
the "www". If you get an error or server message, contact
your hosting company to have this corrected. Many internet
users will attempt to directly navigate to your website
without the w's.

2. Have a family member, friend or associate check your
homepage. It's best if it is someone who is not familiar
with the Internet. Ask them if they know the focus of your
web site. They should be able to point out the main focus
of your homepage without difficulty. If they are confused
as to what your site is about, you need to make some
changes. Ask yourself "Is my message clear from the get-go?"

3. Make sure all of the links within your web site work
properly, as well as links going outside your web site.

4. Make sure all tags are properly closed. Examples of this
are the use of the paragraph tag <p> and the
<Li> tag. In XHTML all open tags must have a closing
tag: &lt;/p> </Li>

5. Check your image optimization and image links for
problems, broken links, changes and updates, etc. Make sure
you quote all attribute values within the document.

For example
&lt;img src="Images/NecTeci3TN.jpg" alt="Slide 3: Why
TECI?" width="200" height="136" border="1"&gt;
is correctly coded while
&lt;img src=Images/NecTeci3TN.jpg alt=Slide 3: Why TECI?
width=200 height= 136 border= 1 &gt;
is not.

6. Do you use PDF's on your site? If you do, be sure to
evaluate three important factors:
* Do you provide a link to download Acrobat Reader?
* Do you denote your links as PDF's and show the user the
file size?
* Do you provide links back to your web site from the PDF?

7. Lastly, remember you can always use the free validator
tool to make sure your web page is compliant. You can find
the W3C validator at http://validator.w3.org/ and simply
putting in the URL of the page you want checked. It will
verify whether the page you constructed is XHTML compliant.

The easier and clearer things are on your website, the more
people will use your site and the more often they will
return.

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