Great Online Resources for Webmasters
As the web becomes increasingly more crowded, it is important
for webmasters to take the extra step to make their web sites
user friendly. There are a number of free resources available to
webmasters:
What is a Favorite Icon - Favicon? Favorite icons, also known as
favicon, appear in the URL bar. When a user bookmarks a specific
Web page, that Web page loads a customized icon into the user's
browser, typically a tiny version of a company or Web site's
logo. Because the favicon is usually displayed next to the web
site address, it can act like a small logo or an icon that
visitors can use to remember the web site or the site address.
The favicon is displayed next to the Web site's name in the
Favorites list and can also be displayed in the Links toolbar.
When a site has not created a favicon, IE will load the IE logo
into the browser by default. When a user bookmarks a page, the
browser will request a favicon.ico file from the directory of
the Web page. If such a file exists, then the Web page is using
a favicon and will return the file to the browser. Many browsers
support favicons including all current versions of the major
browsers support favicons, including Internet Explorer 5/6+,
Firefox 1+, Mozilla 1+, Netscape 7+, Opera 7+, Konqueror 3+,
Safari and more. If a particular browser doesn't have support
for the favicon feature, it'll simply ignore the favicon and the
presence of a favicon won't affect that browser.
Webmasters can establish branding by customizing a favorite
icon. The free service from HTMLKit
http://www.html-kit.com/favicon
Custom 404 Pages. Urls are often mistyped into browsers. When a
domain is correctly entered, but the web pages full url is
entered incorrectly, it is possible to display a custom error
page to web site visitors. By providing users a navigational bar
or assistance rather than a generic error page. The customized
error page will help keep prospective customers on your site
providing them alternatives.
Webmasters should also routinely check their log files and
correct any pages that result in errors. Most log analysis
software will provide the referring document information for a
webpage (the page that the user was at prior to the current
page). Use the web log to track faulty links, if the links are
out of the webmaster's control (a 3rd part), consider setting up
a re-direct and forwarding the traffic to the appropriate
webpage.
Sample Custom 404s -
http://www.web-search-engines.net/error-page or
http://www.puzzle-place.net/error-page
Navigation Clear and intuitive navigation is important so that
web surfers can locate the material of interest. Many web
surfers will enter your website and land on a variety of pages.
It is important that they navigate your site regardless of the
webpage they landed on. Links on the site, should contain text
that relates to the linked webpage's content.
Consider recruiting a child or inexperienced adult to test your
website's navigation. Webmasters can often learn how others view
their website, by just watching.
Webmaster Tools There are a number of freely available web tools
that will evaluate a site for a variety of things. Most of the
online tools will generate a report and highlight the positive
aspects of the website and possibly the negative aspects of the
website, as it relates to the evaluation.
Web Analyzer Tool -
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/web-page-analyser.shtml Search
Engine Assessment Tools -
http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Assessment/
Take a few extra steps to make your site stand up and out from a
competitors.