We all have to update our websites at one time or another, whether it is a full on server move, or a simple text change, but when is the best time to make those changes?
The bottom line is that no matter what your website offers, you make your changes at a time when it is least likely to cost you money.
If you run a B2B website, then the weekend is probably the best time to make large changes, while a B2C website would probably be in the small hours of the morning.
Before you make these kinds of decisions, you should consult your analytics program and guage when the best time is for your own website.
Small changes can be made any time, but if you value your site and your business cannot afford for any website downtime, you need to ensure your changes are handled effectively.
For example, for large and complex websites, I run a development site alongside the live website and all programming changes are tested on the development site before being transferred to the live site. This means bugs are fixed before going live and the downtime experienced on the real site is minimised. It then becomes easier to guage how long changes will take, and thus gives you an idea of when you can feasibly fit the updates into your work schedule.
If you cannot run a duplicate site as a development website, you need to factor in the possibility that the changes you make to your live website may break the site and will result in significantly more downtime than you envisaged.
So, in summary, small changes to the content of your site can really be done at anytime, but structural changes and feature additions should only be implemented when you can minimise the impact of your website’s downtime.
There is an ongoing debate about the use of Captcha images on website and whether they should be used.
The argument from those people against using Captcha images is that spam is not the fault of the genuine website user, so why should they be faced with what are often very hard to read images, just to be able to send an email via a website.
Obviously, the argument in favour of them is that they dramatically reduce spam.
So who’s responsibility should it be?
Personally, I have no problem with the use of Captcha images, but as a Webmaster I understand how much spam you can receive without implementing it.
But if I want people to use my website, shouldn’t it be down to me to ensure that measures put in place to combat things that don’t affect my customers don’t have any impact on my customers? For example, a Captcha code exists to make a webmaster’s life easier – it does not offer any advantage to my website user to complete a Captcha code.
I have tried to use a number of measures to combat spam, none of which have yet worked. But I do believe that us web developers should look beyond the Captcha code to try and find an effective spam deterrent that does not impact the users of our websites.
I would like to hear other’s opinions on this subject. Do you get frustrated with the Captcha codes and do they bother you?
I agree that Flash websites can look amazing – but you need to understand what creating a website in flash means for you.
Maintenance
If you have paid a designer to create your whole site in Flash, you are going to need them to make any change, however minor that may be. Not only can this end up being expensive, the changes may not be particularly quick.
You should keep in mind that Flash is a complicated technology. You should consider if it is the right technology for your website. An (X)HTML website incorporating Flash is far more acceptable to search engine spiders, and I agree that Flash has it’s place. For example, you could use Flash for an online presentation that is more of an extra to the website.
Search Engine Spiders can’t find it!
There has been a lot of talk over the last few years about how search engine spiders have improved their ability to read Flash files. However, while this is true, Flash still presents indexing problems, and so a website built entirely in Flash, will be likely to experience SEO problems.
As the purpose of your website is to attract visitors, the lack of spidering will restrict your search engine optimisation efforts. The current mantra of SEO’s is that “content is king”. If the spiders cannot access your content because it is locked inside a Flash file, you are not realising the true potential of your website.
Do you really need Flash?
I have many bugbears with websites created entirely from Flash – even with just landing pages that have the ’skip intro’ button as part of the flash. There are still a lot of people who don’t have flash installed, and the lack of non-flash navigation can be particularly frustrating.
I tend to find that Flash sites have been created by brilliant designers who lack the understanding of how poor implementation of the technology can create a frustrating website for it’s users.
My own opinion of Flash is that it should be used sparingly and mainly for things that are not important to show up in the search engines. I love a lot of Flash websites, but I look at them from the point of view of the user and the search engines, and I advise my clients accordingly.
Ultimately, the decision of whether to use Flash, and how much, is up to you. If you’re site is essentially a sales or lead generation site, I would advise staying away from Flash as it can slow a user’s progress through your website, and as such, may end up costing you clients.
If you have a website that is about you and your abilities, for example, a graphic designer, then Flash has it’s place.
As a web developer, I often get people asking me to build a website and their explanation of what they want – “I want a copy of www.domain.com please”. I tend to stay away from these kind of clients, as if my client doesn’t know what they want, then I have no hope of developing a site that they will be happy with.
I have tried this once before and got my fingers severely burnt.
When I start a database driven site, I look at the full spec of the site and the database structure is decided from what the requirements of the specifications are. Telling your developer three months down the line that actually you want to be able to import data in a set structure, or providing a feed to another site that was never previously mentioned, will only serve to frustrate your developer and is likely to push the cost up, as fixes will have to be found to provide the new functionality. It will strain your client/developer relationship.
On a personal level, I also think it is good for a website owner to think about what they want their own website to do – creating a clone of someone else’s website may not provide everything you want – and a lot of what you don’t want. Besides, surfers don’t want to see replicas of the same website all over the internet – be different!
Asking a web developer to create a site that does what you want it to do requires a specification list to be drawn up. Without it you may as well ask an insurance company for a quote without providing the details of the driver and the car. A properly drawn up spec list means a developer is more likely to be able to provide a realistic quote for the work, so you are less likely to incur extra costs.
So in summary, providing your developer with a spec list means that you know what you want the finished project to be able to do, and will help to build a relationship with your developer that is built on respect.
If you are going to start writing your own web pages, you need to learn the basics of web design and development and not rely on the wysiwyg editors such as Microsoft Frontpage. I personally have never used Frontpage but I can spot websites built using it – and I often have to deal with sites published using Frontpage Extensions, and I loathe Frontpage.
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is language of the internet. No doubt you will have heard of programming languages such as PHP, ASP or Coldfusion, but all coding in these languages is converted to HTML when being served up to your browser of choice. It is therefore vital that you understand the basics of this language.