Web page size has become a rather heated issue over the past year so I
wanted to take some time to clarify a few things.

Recently, we had a new client that wanted a new website built. Their
biggest concern was how it looked on their computer. The problem is that
their particular monitor belonged on a notebook computer with a 15” screen
running a rather strange resolution.

According to w3schools.com, as of January of 2008, 86% of ALL user are
using resolutions 1024 X  768 pixels or greater. After checking more
resources, I have seen numbers indicating that it could be actually more
than 90%. Only 8% are still using a monitor resolution size of 800 X 600
pixels.

The bottom line is that when having your website built you should build it
to fit the majority of your visitors computers, not your own. This
particular customer only wanted the website to look perfect on their own
system. The result is that the page size they wanted would look small and
dated on majority of the monitors in the world.

After doing more research, I found a great source for Display Resolution
Statistics
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp

Another great resource for this type of web information is:
http://www.thecounter.com

The 7 Most Common Web Site Mistakes
1) Where’s Your Phone Number?
2) Is Your Contact Email Visible?
3) Provide Clear Navigation
4) Keep the Layout Consistent
5) Flash Animation NO-NOs
6) How Big is Your Web Page?
7) How Fast Does Your Web Site Load?
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The 7 Most Common Web Site Mistakes
By David Prescott

It still amazes me that after all of these years there are so many web sites just missing the mark. Some of the most important features to the site and related business are missing. The following is a list of most major mistakes businesses make. Are you making them too?

1) Where’s Your Phone Number?
If you want people to contact you, put your phone number where people can find it, on every page. Offering a phone number really adds to the credibility of your business.

2) Is Your Contact Email Visible?
This is just as important as showing your phone numbers. Of course, you should have a contact page, but by making an email address available on every page, you’ll enable those who are interested a quicker way to do so.

3) Provide Clear Navigation
There are a variety of things to consider when talking about navigation. Think about getting around your site. How many clicks does it take for you to get to your most popular page? (by the way, you should know what is the most popular page on your site). Whenever possible, make shortcuts to your popular destinations.

4) Keep the Layout Consistent
You also need to consider placement of your navigation system. Keep it in the same place on every page. The only acceptable exception to this rule is between the homepage and sub pages. Even then, you need to keep it as similar as possible, to help your visitors feel more comfortable.

5) Flash Animation NO-NOs
You should not have your entire homepage and navigation system designed using Flash. I know there are people that will disagree with me on this, but I have good reason. The simple fact is that in most cases it is more difficult to update a Flash site versus a HTML web site.

The exception is when you are big enough to have a dedicated web person who knows Flash and you are sure that you have all of the original Flash files. Even then, I personally don’t recommend it.

The problem is that if you hire someone to build a site for you using mostly Flash, you will either need to hire them again to make changes or hire someone else, as Flash is a learned skill. I hate to think about how many times we’ve heard stories about someone hiring a designer who builds a beautiful site entirely in flash. Six months later they need to make changes and the person who built it is gone… along with the original files. When this happens there is pretty much nothing you can do to save your site and it can cost thousands of dollars.

Please don’t get me wrong. I love Flash! In fact I suggest having some flash on every web site. I just believe that it should be used in small portions more how a video would be used. Think of Flash as an inexpensive way to create a small commercial. Keep the Flash on your site for a while and then understand that it can be replaced whenever you want easily. In fact, if your Flash designer disappears, you can always use an HTML editor and just delete the Flash and replace it with a static picture.

6) How Big is Your Web Page?
There are two different aspects of page size; height and width. When it comes to width things have changed over the last couple of years. Most people are using higher resolutions on their computers. This means that if your site was built several years ago, it may look skinny on most peoples monitors. It’s not that these sites don’t fit or work properly, it that they look outdated.

Most people are running their monitors at resolutions which require web pages to be closer to 900 pixels in width. This is a far cry from the 700 pixel sites that we were building just a year ago. When visitors go to a site that is narrow or skinny, it tells them instantly that the site is old. Let’s face it, people want the latest and greatest information on the web and if yours looks outdated it can hurt your chances capturing their business.

The other aspect of size is the length of the page. Pages shouldn’t be too long. I know that’s a rather general statement, but you need to consider the load times and navigation. In some cases a single long page may be appropriate when it’s a continued story. However, putting different items which should be on different pages can hurt your site.
For one, no one really likes to scroll. Secondly, search engines such as Google give credit for more content across more pages. In other words, if you’re trying to improve your ranking, more pages and content the better.

7) How Fast Does Your Web Site Load?
This isn’t as big of an issue as it used to be with most people being on some type of high speed connection these days. However, it still happens occasionally where you’ll get to a site and it will either load slowly or just hang all together.

If the site is just loading slow it can be due to graphics being improperly sized in the site, or bad coding or a number of other reasons. Your site should never take more than a few seconds to load. If you have any Flash, audio, or video elements, they should all load and run separately from the rest of the HTML part of the site.

HMG has been selected by Choices Consulting to provide e-marketing services through eConnectEmail.com. We have also been called on to design the e-marketing campaigns and deploy them on the behalf of Choices Consulting.

Choices Consulting is headquartered in San Diego, California with associates in Chicago, Phoenix, and Utah.

Their core competency is helping individuals develop skills and strategies that build success for their organizations and their customers through collaboration.

For more information visit www.choicesconsulting.net

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