HTML5 is Great
I submitted the Sitely Site to HTML5 Gallery and am thankful for their criticism!
JavaScript Pong
Well, I wish I could’ve done this with HTML5’s canvas element, and it’s definitely on the horizon, but I wrote a little Pong Game (http://joelsalisbury.com/examples/pong/) using JavaScript and the jQuery library! Rock on!
Javascript Pong (using jQuery for awesomeness)
Why No One Likes Your Website (it’s hard to find)
Every webmaster, business owner, and marketing director wants their website to well-received and loved by their customers. Here’s why yours may be failing.
This is part one of a multi-part series.
Your website is hard to find.
Clients often ask me a very important question: “Will people find my website?” As an extension of this, I am often asked “Why does my website not appear on Google?”
It’s often best to think of things in terms of your personal internet usage habits.
Trust the web. It’s all about content, baby!
Consider the following:
You are the proprietor of a small sushi restaurant. You may already have a solid local customer base, but how are new customers discovering you? When people do a Google search for “[your town] sushi,” are you in that list of results? You should be, because no one cares about you if they can’t find you.
You may have the snazziest, most modern, useful website known to man, with all the bells and whistles you can stuff into a site. If no one can find it, you’ve wasted your time and money.
How to fix it fast:
Make sure your website effectively solves the problem your users are trying to solve. Don’t trick your users with false keywords. Don’t pontificate about your business to the point of sounding cheesy.
Rather, recognize the reason visitors are searching for your businesses and present your business fully and truthfully. If you do this, you will see high search rankings.
Be specific with your content.
When you’re searching online for a restaurant nearby, do you search simply for “restaurants?” If so, good luck to you! By searching on broad terms, you’re unlikely to find someone close to you. A better search term would be “[your town] restaurants.” Even better would be something like “[your town] Italian Restaurants.” Along these same lines, your website should include content related the geographic area and clientèle you intend to serve.
Be natural.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are indeed some fancy, clever-sounding buzzwords, but no keyword-stuffing or link buying can match the integrity of a truly well-established website. When your website truly represents your business, the visitors will come.
Tool vs. Toy — it’s not your website.
We’ve already established that to build a great website, you need to know what you want, and be consistently clear about it. Most importantly, though, you need to know WHY you are building a website.
Identify your audience.
Your website has a purpose. If you’re a blogger, the purpose of your site is to extend your message to as many readers as possible. For most businesses the purpose is to attract new customers and relate to current customers. Essentially, the goal of your website should be anything but appealing to your own whims.
It’s not your website.
The most important part of a web design project is the audience. Too often, clients and web designers alike lose sight of the fact that their website is built for a reason — to appeal to an audience. Web designers, for all their virtues, often focus on the latest and greatest elements of web design: the fancy graphics and clever development tricks. The clients, for all their open checkbooks, tend to focus more on what they like. Both parties, however, need to remember that it’s not their website.
Designers
When suggesting features (and fielding requests for features) remember that the website is NOT yours. Once you and your client have established a target audience (and you have established a target audience, right?) make sure each one of your feature suggestions can be tied back to an audience requirement. Clients, if you’re reading this, make sure your designer justifies what their suggestions with reasons related to your target audience.
Clients/Business owners
Although your website is made to represent the services your business provides, remember it is NOT a reflection of your tastes. Ideally, your goal is to attract customers. So, as stated above, remember that it’s not your website. You like red? So what? Does your audience like red? That’s what matters. To think only in terms of your tastes is to imply that you are the only one who matters. If you only care about yourself, you’ll be the only visitor to your own website.
Tool vs. Toy
Essentially, it comes down to a “Tool vs. Toy” decision (thanks, Dad, for that metaphor). Is your website for you, or is for your audience? If your website is a “toy,” i.e., it is for your own benefit, recognize that and save your money. If you acknowledge that it’s a “tool,” with the purpose of extending your message to your audience, treat it as such, and proceed with your audience in mind.
Forget about IE6 – if you haven’t already
A primary rule of web design is to plan for the future, and in the near future, IE6 will be dead. It’s time to start thinking ahead. In reality, Internet Explorer 6 has been dead for years, and we may as well move the industry forward.
If you absolutely must design for IE6 (for example, if you know your user base to be an IE6 majority), don’t sacrifice features, visual appeal, or functionality when your site is viewed in modern browsers. Rather, provide your IE6 visitors with a stripped-down version. There is no sense in holding the industry back.
Please note that I am not advocating a complete disregard for IE6, but no longer are we required to let it hold us back. HTML5 and CSS3 are coming, bringing with them a bright new future for web design, a future IE6 will not be a part of. The goal should now be minimal functionality. So go ahead, use that PNG, min-height, and padding. Your future awaits!
So farewell, IE6. It’s been real.