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Great Online Resources for
Webmasters
Copyright © 2006 Sharon Housley
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 party), 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.
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About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing
RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software
company.
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