Web Page Tips

After viewing thousands of anime web sites (and thousands of other sites), I've noticed the same "mistakes" being made over and over again by some web page authors and have decided to give some suggestions.

Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't do it! It's a given that virtually every page on the WWW is under construction. You're just slowing down the loading speed of your page by including that under construction image. And you wouldn't even need such a thing if you'd just follow the next suggestion.

I can't begin to tell you how irritating it is load up a page just to see that it's not finished and that the author wishes you to return at a later date. You know what? 99% of the time they won't be back. Who'd want to return somewhere where their time might be wasted again?

Please take the time you need to complete your web page as much as possible and then tell people about it. You'll certainly receive more repeat visitors and the overall quality of the web will be improved. Never fear...the web will survive another week or two while you're finishing your site. ^_^

Repeat after me: "For every image on my web page, I shall include an ALT value." While it's true that a small percentage of web surfers use text browsers or graphical browsers with the auto load images turned off, why alienate those viewers when it's so simple to just put something as the ALT value.

Even if it's just alt="", at least they won't have to see the always irritating and uninformative [IMAGE]. An informative, attractive, and easy to use web page, regardless of browser, is the object of the game.

Want to be able to view your entire web page, even while the images are still loading? Then make sure all your images have HEIGHT and WIDTH values.

With those values, your browser (Err..at least if you're using Netscape) knows exactly how to place your images on the page and it will improve the overall loading speed of your page.

No. This isn't a plea not to use frames. It's a plea that if you must use frames, please put a working version of your page between the <NOFRAMES> tags.

There are still plenty of people using browsers that don't have frames capability and by not properly using <NOFRAMES> you're missing out on extra visitors. And if you think that your site could only work with frames, think again.

Maybe you've had this experience: You're surfing during the early A.M. hours. A nice Tenchi page pops up. Then you're blasted to next week by a MIDI with the volume set way too high.

Please remember that not everyone's volumes are set at the same level and that you should be careful when setting the volume value. You should also provide at least a play and stop button so someone can view your page without the music if they wish

"3% of 245K". No, that's not a small program being downloaded. That's a giant image on a web page that I'm about to leave because I don't want to wait that long for it to load. While I'm sure that page loads quite nicely with an ethernet connection, it's quite painful for most of your visitors who are using 28.8 or 14.4 modems. If there's a large image you'd like to show, provide a separate link to it.

Also, for those wishing to start up image galleries, a large amount of images on one page isn't a good idea. It would be much more efficient to place a certain amount of images on separate pages, so the page load time won't be as bad.

What resolution to create your web pages for is still constantly debated on the WWW newsgroups. I'll throw in my hat to say that you should limit yourself to a width below 640. There are still a great number of people running computers at 640x480 and most of the major popular web sites are designed for a below 640 width.

Nothing's more irritating than having to move around that horizontal scroll bar to check out the right side of a web page. You have to ask yourself...is it really necessary to have an image or set up that wide? Or would it make more sense to shrink it to below 640 and not have to worry about irritating anyone? (Note: If WebTV becomes big, you might have to reduce than number to 544 ^^;;;)

If you are really serious about having a popular web site, it would behoove you to check your creation with more than one browser. Your page will look different from browser to browser (and even from version to version and operating system to operating system), so it's best that you know what you're dealing with.

Even sticking to strict HTML will produce different results on different browsers. I'd suggest checking your pages with at least the top two popular browsers (Netscape and Internet Explorer) and at least one older version just to be safe. (I check my pages in numerous browsers: Netscape 4.03, 3.01, 2.02, 1.22; Internet Explorer 3.02, 2.0; Lynx 2.3; DosLynx 2.7)

You've spotted a super cool "Wings of Tenchi Moon DX 999" image. You just know it would look great as the background of your new web page. You upload everything to your site; pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Unbeknownst to you, at that very moment, a viewer comments, "What the..?!!". She can't read the text on your web page; it clashes with the background making it impossible to view.

Many anime images, in their normal state, make for very bad backgrounds. There's usually great contrast between the colors, making at least some of the text unreadable. Be sure to keep this in mind when designing your pages. Working with solid colors or faded anime images as backgrounds and the appropriate colored text will make your site more presentable.

They're the new rave in the web world. Join a web ring and watch your hits skyrocket. However, some people are going nuts with this new fad. They join ten to twenty rings at a time and place ALL of their ring fragments on one page, resulting in a massive slowdown of the loading time of their page. I know you'd love to increase your hits this way, but you really have to consider whether the slowdown of your page is really worth the added weight.

If you are inclined to join many web rings, having a separate page for all (or most) of them might be a good idea. I'd also like to suggest that, in the interest of fast download times, the owners of the various anime web rings make smaller versions of their images available to their members.

I've found it amazing how often I've gone back to a page that I've enjoyed and found it closed for redesigning. Even famous companies, like the great Studio Ghibli, have done this in the past with their web sites. Who will benefit from the removal of your informative pages, while you fiddle with HTML and images? Your pages couldn't have been that worthless, otherwise you wouldn't have put the effort into creating them in the first place.

Excluding legal action or pressure from your internet service provider, there's no good reason to remove those pages. Keep your pages up until you've completed your redesign. Your viewers will be more appreciative of the work you've done, without the bitter taste of the great page wipeout in their mouths.

Think about it. How would you have felt if you tried to connect to the Turnpike, say around November of last year, and gotten a "Down for redesigning...come back in January"? ^_-