Free Website Content
Online Business Resources
As the web becomes increasingly more crowded,
it is important for webmasters to take the extra step
to make their web sites user friendly. There are a number
of free resources available to webmasters:
What is a Favorite Icon - Favicon?
Favorite icons, also known as favicon, appear in
the URL bar. When a user bookmarks a specific Web page,
that Web page loads a customized icon into the user's
browser, typically a tiny version of a company or Web
site's logo. Because the favicon is usually displayed
next to the web site address, it can act like a small
logo or an icon that visitors can use to remember the
web site or the site address.
The favicon is displayed next to the Web
site's name in the Favorites list and can also be displayed
in the Links toolbar. When a site has not created a
favicon, IE will load the IE logo into the browser by
default. When a user bookmarks a page, the browser will
request a favicon.ico file from the directory of the
Web page. If such a file exists, then the Web page is
using a favicon and will return the file to the browser.
Many browsers support favicons including all current
versions of the major browsers support favicons, including
Internet Explorer 5/6+, Firefox 1+, Mozilla 1+, Netscape
7+, Opera 7+, Konqueror 3+, Safari and more. If a particular
browser doesn't have support for the favicon feature,
it'll simply ignore the favicon and the presence of
a favicon won't affect that browser.
Webmasters can establish branding by customizing
a favorite icon. The free service from HTMLKit
http://www.html-kit.com/favicon
Custom 404 Pages.
Urls are often mistyped into browsers. When a domain
is correctly entered, but the web pages full url is
entered incorrectly, it is possible to display a custom
error page to web site visitors. By providing users
a navigational bar or assistance rather than a generic
error page. The customized error page will help keep
prospective customers on your site providing them alternatives.
Webmasters should also routinely check
their log files and correct any pages that result in
errors. Most log analysis software will provide the
referring document information for a webpage (the page
that the user was at prior to the current page). Use
the web log to track faulty links, if the links are
out of the webmaster's control (a 3rd part), consider
setting up a re-direct and forwarding the traffic to
the appropriate webpage.
Sample Custom 404s - http://www.web-search-engines.net/error-page
or http://www.puzzle-place.net/error-page
Navigation
Clear and intuitive navigation is important so that
web surfers can locate the material of interest. Many
web surfers will enter your website and land on a variety
of pages. It is important that they navigate your site
regardless of the webpage they landed on. Links on the
site, should contain text that relates to the linked
webpage's content.
Consider recruiting a child or inexperienced
adult to test your website's navigation. Webmasters
can often learn how others view their website, by just
watching.
Webmaster Tools
There are a number of freely available web tools
that will evaluate a site for a variety of things. Most
of the online tools will generate a report and highlight
the positive aspects of the website and possibly the
negative aspects of the website, as it relates to the
evaluation.
Web Analyzer Tool - http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/web-page-analyser.shtml
Search Engine Assessment Tools - http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Assessment/
Take a few extra steps to make your site
stand up and out from a competitors.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
NotePage http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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This article may be used freely in opt-in
publications and websites, provided that the resource
box is included and the links are active. A courtesy
copy of the issue or a link to any online posting would
be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
.
Additional articles available for publication available
at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
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