Code, Sweat & Tears

We all want speedy websites. Here are some techniques to keep your file sizes as itty bitty as possible.

In general, the total weight of your HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other paraphernalia should stay under 100k. Here are some strategies for when 100k just isn’t possible.

• HTML files can be kept small by reducing blank lines and long-winded comments.
• Name your utility folders with single letters as opposed to “JavaScript” and “images”. Because search engines will not index these links, it’s ok to be anti-semantic.
• Use external style sheets! In-page embedding will slow down load time because it will have to be cached every time the user loads a new page.
• Build JavaScript files carefully. Include only necessary functionality.
• Minify your CSS and JavaScript files by reducing white space. White space includes tabs, new lines and spaces. Although this type of construction is not very workable while you are working on your file, you may want to alter your file to reduce white space in the testing phase.

Now we should all be weighing in under 100k!

Findability optimization typically focuses on client-side strategies. But there are many uses for Findability on the server-side as well. File structure, URL construction, 404 design and a speedy server can and will greatly affect your site’s Findability.

Keywords in the names of your files and folders are indexed by search engines to help them understand what your page is all about, so choose wisely! If you’re selling coffee don’t name your about page “dirt”! Google is currently the only search engine that can read coffee-beans as well as coffee_beans as “coffee beans”. Best practice for considering all the search engines is to use the hyphen between words.

Older, .com domain names are considered favorable to young, .net, .org and .biz. But don’t go out and purchase used domain names and expect them to be nicely aged! The search engines will be onto you because PageRank will not transfer to a new owner. All extensions start at the same starting line, however the popularity of .com is usually desired because of it’s catchiness among consumers.

The usual dead end of the 404 page can be frustrating to many web users. Creating custom error pages that state the problem and suggest ways around the trouble gives users a reason to stay on your site. Making your own is as simple as changing some code on your .htaccess file so it will play nicer with the Apache server.

Now that you’ve accepted Web Standards into your life, it’s time to commit. Here are some essential tags that promote your site’s findability.

• The Title Tag

  The Title Tag is one of the most important ways to position your brand using keywords and key phrases. Your title tag should be less than twelve words, and should not be a catchall for your keywords and key phrases. Because the title will be truncated, keywords should be listed last following breadcrumbs and the organization name as it is a critical component of usability and navigation. When shown on a search results page, the title tag will serve as the main heading and will often help users decide whether or not to visit your page.

• Strong and Em Tags

Both the Strong and Em Tags are used to emphasize small parts of your code. Like header tags, they will elevate the ranking of the tagged portions of your code within the information hierarchy of your page.

• Anchor Tags

Anchor Tags are text labels for links. They are thought to be one of the most crucial places to position relevant keywords to your brand. The title attribute of a link is extremely valuable as a spot for your keywords.

• Meta Keyword Tags

Contrary to popular belief, none of the major search engines see the Meta Keyword Tag as a true way of determining a page’s content. Save a few keystrokes, omit it.

• Meta Description Tag

The Meta Description Tag is worthwhile, however. Usually, the description shown on search results comes directly from your description tag, so users will see it under your site link. Although the maximum length is 1024 characters, you should keep your description between 150 and 200 words due to truncation.

• Meta Robots Tag

The Meta Robots Tag is typically used erroneously. Because search engines crawl all of the pages on your site anyway, telling them to do so is not necessary.

• Meta Refresh Tag

This tag should be avoided! Search engines will perceive this as black hat SEO, and we don’t want any of that!

• Meta Content-Type

the Meta Content-Type Tag should always be included. It defines the character set that the browser will use to display the content.

• Meta Author Tag

The Meta Author Tag is nice, but it won’t affect your findability either way. It is not used by Google, Yahoo! or MSN.

• Meta Content-Language

The Meta Content-Language Tag is also nice, but it won’t affect your findability either. It assists spiders in determining the language of your site.

• Meta Copyright

Also nice but ineffective to findability is the Meta Copyright Tag. Its use is self-explanatory.

• Geo Tags

And rounding out the nice but ineffective category is the Geo Tag. They identify the author of the site.

Web standards are the protocol that top designers, developers and their employers live by. The many practical benefits of adopting Web standards are overwhelmingly in your favor, especially if Findability is important to your site.

First, a little history of Web standards.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee established the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1994, consisting of an international counsel of Web experts whose purpose was to champion best practices for creating Web content. Some languages supported by the W3C are HTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML.

1998 marked the formation of the Web Standards Project, whose charge was to inspire some real change on the Web by educating developers and designers alike about the benefits of adopting Web standards.

The CSS Zen Garden also aided in quashing myths that standards-based design was unattractive.

So, for those that weren’t around when the Web was invented, it’s initial intent was a platform for scientists and researchers to publish and share their research documents, using HTML. As you can imagine, not too pretty and far from the moving graphics and interactive interfaces that we now are accustomed to. In the 1990s the W3C decided to take the power back and revamp HTML, resulting in XHTML. (XHTML is HTML rebuilt using XML to define it’s structure.) This is great for designers and developers everywhere because XHTML happily accommodates improvement and development of new tags and attributes.

The benefits of using Web standards to developers, designers, end-users and businesses are overwhelming, but the most persuasive argument can be found in our friend Findability. Using Web standards will help optimize sites for search engines and will generate more traffic on your site!

Findability is arguably the most crucial aspect of a successfully functioning website. The ability to reach your target audience through the density of the World Wide Web may seem impossible, but a thoughtful Findability strategy, implemented by all participants in the development of a website, will prove worthwhile in the long haul.

So, what is this Findability we speak of? Peter Morville defined it in his book Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become as:

“ The quality of being located or navigated, the degree to which an object or piece of data can be located, and the degree to which a system supports navigation or retrieval. ”
Morville

Findability measures how well information reaches its intended audience. Hence, it addresses your client’s bottom line, which is unarguably their primary focus.

Throughout the incubation of a website, Findability can be found at the following desks: Information Architecture, Development, Marketing, Copywriting, Design, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Accessibility and Usability. Carefully incorporating Findability at every step in the development of a website will undoubtedly produce optimal results for your website and your client.