Website outline

A website outline is just what the name implies...a written outline of the content of your website. Even though you feel as if know every title and sentence on the website you are creating, once a site is online it is very difficult to remember the actual order of things.

Having a website outline helps provide a mental picture of the site, the sections, subsections and content pages. This will also serve as a valuable guide when you setup your navigation scheme. You will be able to better visualize the path that you wish your visitors to follow.

Keeping track of graphics and links

It is a good idea to list all the graphics and links and on what pages they are located. When you decide to change any of them, having the file names will save you a lot of time.

I realize this may seem Iike a lot of paperwork for something that is going to be on the Internet. But l can tell you (from painful experience) that you will appreciate having written documentation and use it more than you can imagine.

You can create a website outline in any way that is most meaningful for you. A journal, ledger pad, or even a data spreadsheet would work great. Use whatever works best for you.

Website File Organization

1) Keep your Website organized identically on your hard drive as you organize it on the Internet.

2) Keep files used on your index page and files used repeatedly in your root directory. But don't overload your root directory.

3) Create a subdirectory for each series of related pages.

4) Plan for expansion. If you think a page on a particular theme will expand into a number of pages, create a subdirectory for it.

5) Keep files that belong on each page in the same subdirectory (except those in the root directory)

6) Name your subdirectories and files in an easy to identify manner.

Don't change your subdirectory or file names (and html page addresses) after the fact. Name and address them now in a manner that you will be able to maintain in the future, no matter how much you expand. (Save us all from broken links!)

If you do have to change an address after your Website is up, then place a redirect page or link in the old location.

Summary

Organization is the key to any successful website.The better organized a website is the easier it is for search engines to catalogue it and for your visitors to navigate through it. For the webmaster organization makes their job a whole lot easier.

Gene DeFazzio is the author and webmaster of the Rocketface(R) Workshop. http://www.rocketface.com