When I’m not photographing I play about in web design, not massive commercial sites, mySQL, Ruby on Rails, or any programming (I just don’t understand it) but normal down to earth (X)HTML/CSS the odd bit of java (again, don’t really understand it) and some PHP as needed, and I like to think that I know enough to still be socially acceptable.
I am currently re-designing my own site, and in doing so have looked about for inspiration, and get some ideas. There are a few things that, especially from my point of view are pretty important, and should be addressed if you are re-designing (or getting someone else to) your site, they kinda tie in to each other, so they all need to be considered:
- Flash. - There are two reasons flash is used, first you can make a really, really slick looking site with it, and its often used on photographer portfolio sites as it offers some defense from people pinching photos and hotlinking.
- SEO - Search Engine Optimization, If people can’t find you, then whats the point. I’m not talking about a direct search in google (ie searching for “www.amazing-cactus-photos.com”) I mean searching for something like “succulents pictures”
- Compatibility - The W3C have guidelines on developing a site to be standards compliant and work in the maximum amount of browser/computer configurations possible, yes its boring, but its really easy.
- Layout - On the whole, clean, simple, and no-fuss works perfectly. A few touches work well here and there, this is where a good knowledge of web standards comes in handy.
Ok, first off, Flash sites can be a bit hit and miss. A 100% flash site has no internal links, pages, visible content, and thus is invisible to search engines, if flash is to be used, then used in part with HTML content will ensure the search engine will have something to look at, or break the flash file up and put it on different pages. That is of course if the end user has flash installed on their site to start with. Can the site be made with XHTML and CSS? Using Flash for images isn’t too bad, all the content and navigation is in the HTML, again the user will need flash installed, and while it does deter image theft and hotlinking, its not 100% foolproof.
SEO, or ’How Google Finds Your Site’. Google is the biggest search engine in the world, yes others are available, but Google just, er, is the best. Google is also clever. So, how does it work? Well there are a few things, Content; Good quality content, Google can tell if you are cheating, listing keywords, sticking up ghost pages, copy other sites content etc, so the best way is to make sure you are offering original, relevant content. Then you will get more referrals and move up the rankings. Links; Good quality links from other sites to your site, plus working text links to other pages on your site (no picture links). (In fact why should I write this when Google themselves tell you in much more detail.) Google ignores the Meta tags ‘Keywords’ and ‘Description’ in the <head> on the basis that users can’t see them, so why should Google. It does however take into account inaccurate Meta tags (I told you it was clever), so adding irrelevant ones is worse than having none at all. Other search engines do use the Meta tags, so its probably worth putting them in for the five or six people that still use Hotbot or Lycos. A few quick tips, In the <title> tag, instead of ‘Joe Bloggs Photography’, which is rubbish, stick in a few key words; ‘Portrait, Cactus and Wedding photography by Joe Bloggs’, Never underestimate the <title> tag, make sure its filled in on all your pages. Then don’t forget some content on the main page, If you can see it, Google can see it, make it relevant, not just a list of keywords. Remember, Google is clever…
Compatibility and Layout. This is just making sure your code is written properly and set out in a clear and simple manner; no dark blue links on a black backgrounds or massive 900k images on the main site, or 2px serif fonts that no-one can read. Its also not that hard to achieve.
The very foundation of a website is content and presentation. The content of a website is the ‘meat’, and how its structured using (certain) HTML tags, and the presentation is all the frilly bits like how its set out, colour, size, shape is stored in a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file, which gets loaded when the HTML is loaded.
I wont get into the different flavors of HTML, but a good place to start getting up on web standards is the W3C Website Validation checker. Aim for 4.01 Transitional, and work up to XHTML 1.0 Strict. Why does is matter if it doesn’t validate? well, for one, there could be a group of people that can’t see your site, or it doesn’t work properly, If you are selling online, then this could be lost sales, and they are never good. A whole list of reasons why it matters is on the W3C site.
Well thats quite a long post, but I hope its kinda informative for someone. I started out building sites back in 1998, and have built quite a few over the years, this is just some of what I’ve learnt over that time. I hope its kinda informative for a few people.
