Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Standards are constantly evolving for website creation. The most successful websites are often those that adhere to the standards set in place by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C “develops inter-operable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.” (W3C.org, Leading the Web, 2003). Following the guidelines set in place by the W3C is the best way to ensure maximum usability and interoperability for a website. These standards serve as the foundation for communication protocols on the World Wide Web and help to create universal accessibility, trust and credibility.

The W3C defines “valid” code for a webpage and helps to define what will work with given web browsers. The W3C offers free validation tools for many types of web technologies including HTML, XHTML, CSS, and many more. (http://validator.w3.org/) A webpage that validates by these standards is more likely to be viewed properly by users in all browsers as well as by search engine spiders. Having a page “spidered” correctly is a vital element of a successful website. Search engines account for a large percentage of new user traffic and should be examined thoroughly to maximize their benefit. A good starting point for this examination is ensuring that pages validate by W3C standards.

Beyond the general standards of what is deemed valid, a site must also have strong usability. There is a vast body of research that has already been conducted in the study of usability available on the Internet. The checklists for usability can become quite extensive, but many of the items have already been covered throughout the scope of this paper. Some of the most important usability elements include ensuring organization is efficient, maintaining website goals and focus, including functionality, providing accurate content, ensuring fast download times, verifying hyperlinks work, and providing intuitive navigation and layout. A more comprehensive checklist has been provided in the appendix section of the paper for more extensive usability checking. (See appendix 2-9)

Appendices
(All in a single document) Appendix 1-1: Overture Search Term
Research Tool

Appendix 1-2: Wordtracker Search Query Research Tool

Appendix 1-3: Google Sets Website Theme Research Tool

Appendix 1-4: Reach/ Acquire/ Convert/ Retain

Chart Appendix 2-5: Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth Information Architecture Flowchart

Appendix 2-6: Search Engine Themes Pyramid Information Architecture Example

Appendix 2-7: Webpage Download Time by File Size Chart

Appendix 2-8: Expected Locations for Common E-commerce Elements

Appendix 2-9: Website Usability Checklist

Appendix 2-10: Text Vs.Code Ratio/ Content Near the Top of Souce Code Examples

Appendix 3-11: Overture Bid Price Tool

Appendix 3-12: Webalizer Website Visitor Tracking Tool

Appendix 3-13: AW STATS Website Visitor Tracking Tool Appendix

3-14: Clicktracks Website Statistics
Analysis Tool

References
Author Notes

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Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites Table of Contents

Planning, Developing, and Promoting a Successful Small Business Website

Validated Website Development for Small Business Page 29

Webpage Validation W3C

Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Validated Website Development for Small Business
Page 29