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This Week's Quote
The man who goes the farthest
is generally the one who is
willing to do and dare. The
sure-thing boat never gets from
shore.
- Dale Carnegie
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WIKI
An Hawaiian term meaning "quick". It’s an application that gathers in one place, a number of web pages focusing on a particular subject. It becomes a collaboration in which users may contribute and update the content. The most famous wiki is the Wikipedia. |
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 Which
Way Ya' Going?!
We've constantly stressed the importance of
content on your web site. The content
must be organized and part of this
organization is ensuring that each page has
a very clear purpose, a message and/or
product, or service to promote. Try to
focus on one subject per page. Equally important is a clear
and easy to follow navigation system
allowing your web site visitors to go from
one page to another, and back, and to easily
find respective content on your site.
If your web visitor has the experience
comparable to being lost in a forest of
trees and undergrowth, he or she will become
very frustrated and leave your site.
Here are some tips then on developing a good
navigation system, easy to use by your web
visitors, and one that is search engine
friendly!
First, prepare by planning your site.
This will help organize your content, the
site's overall structure and allow you to
easily build a navigation system that is
apparent and coherent.
The navigation system or interface should be
consistent and uniform throughout the site.
Your web visitor should not have to learn
how to use and get around your site. A
large number of links should be grouped with
the aid of drop-down or slide-out menus.
Main links should be showcased to draw your
visitors to the most important parts of your
site. Links should contain short but
descriptive words and phrases that clearly
tell or provide a teaser to the visitor
about what to expect on the corresponding
page.
The infrastructure of your navigation system
is very important! Image links can
draw attention, but large image based
navigation menus can be problematic with
those on slow internet connections. Menu
systems which are flash or script oriented
may not be search engine friendly.
Make sure these are accompanied with text
links on each page. The location of
your menu should be given much
consideration. A navigation system
included at the top and bottom of each page
can be very user and search engine friendly
for a variety of reasons.
Try to avoid irrelevant links on large
sites. Space on each page is precious
and good organization will allow your
visitors to find unrelated material
throughout the site by looking at main pages
and main subject links. Some believe
that it is best to ensure that no page is
more than three links away.
Consider the use of breadcrumbs. These
are horizontal series of text links that
illustrate and connect to the parent levels
of all the pages that lead the visitor to
the current page. In other words,
breadcrumbs show the hierarchy of your site.
Finally, make sure to include a Site Map in
your site. We'll talk more about site
maps in the future. Also in the future
we'll talk about CSS and styling to enhance
your navigation interface. |
