Website Checklist Is your website delivering the revenue it should?

It does not cost more to design, implement, and maintain a website that will deliver fully on its potential. In fact, it can cost substantially less to implement and maintain a website that is designed correctly. We have prepared a checklist for you so that you can assess your own website:

1. Multiple Devices: Does your website adjust to the widely varying requirements of desktops, workstations, handhelds, cell phones, and printers? It is possible to design a single version of your website that automatically adjusts to your visitor's device.
2. Browser Versions: Do your web pages display correctly in all browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Apple's Safari, and Opera? Will they display correctly on past and present browsers? Have you tested your site on old browsers?
3. Screen Readers: Will your web pages accommodate the visually impaired and handicapped? Many people use screen readers, Braille browsers, handhelds, and other unusual output devices that stumble on improperly constructed pages.
4. Future Browsers: Is your site design future-proof, using current standards that will be readable by future browsers? It is possible to implement sites that will operate correctly well into the future.
5. Load Times: Are your web pages light-weight or heavy-weight? Long load times that discourage users are totally unnecessary if your site is designed correctly.
6. Search Engines: Is your site optimized for search engines? Many designs prevent proper scanning by search engines. The structural information present in our designs makes it easier for search engines to index your site correctly.

How much business sense does it make to limit your audience to only a fraction of those who wish to be a part of it? For a business site, denying access to even small portions of a target audience can make a big difference to your profit margin.

Your web design may be placing you into a cycle of obsolescence that includes: proprietary scripts, browser detection, and browser quirk markup.

Web developers have constantly been trying to address the problem of inconsistencies between the renderings of web pages by different browsers. Time has passed, and standards have been developed that allow us to throw down the shackles of web development. With our modern development skills, we are able to develop for multiple browsers with ease, even for handheld devices and mobile phones. Standards make this possible, and we know web standards.

Simpler, standards-based code makes it easier to debug and update your site. Also, because site may go through several groups of designers, it is important that the code is easily understood by all. The standards we use give us that. When one developer designs a site to the standards, another will be able to pick up where the former left off.