The Importance of a Sitemap
Written by Nathaniel Deal
A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one. By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.
1) Navigation purposes
A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.
2) Conveying your site's theme
When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors' time.
Make Your Website International User Friendly
Written by Nathaniel Deal
More and more people around the world are using the Internet, and the numbers are increasing everyday. The Internet has become the primary source of information for many, and because of that, web sites have to constantly improve the content and image of their web pages in order to keep users interested in accessing their sites.
What are the measures that should be implemented by web designers in order to make their sites more appealing to users around the world? Here is a list of issues that can be encountered in web design and the necessary action to be considered:
First, the design of a web site should be compatible to any browser. It should be able to pass HTML and CSS validation tests. Second, web sites should be able to cater to disabled users. This won't be a problem as long as designers adhere to web standards. Third, the process of navigating a web site should be simple enough for all users. No user likes to encounter a new site, and then he or she has to figure out how to navigate around it. Fourth, status bars should be available. It shows the destination of links as the cursor is being moved. The status of the current page is also displayed as it loads.
Create A Successful Email Design
Written by Nathaniel Deal
Designing a full proof email can be a challenge. Here are a few tips that will help your email appear the same accross multiple email providers.
1. Only Use Tables
2. Use Inline CSS, padding, borders, fonts, colors, but NOT use background-images or margins
3. If you need background images, they only work in TD table cells, coded traditionally, not CSS.
4. <body> background images... won't work. Better to have a big Table width 100%, height 100% with a background in the TD.
5. Need a specific height? It'll only work as a traditional <td height="x" width="x"> not CSS.
6. Use images for text as little as possible and if you do, make sure that you use good alt tag descriptions of the images.
Gmail Compliance Tips
User Selected Gmail Themes
Problem: The introduction of Gmail Themes—which allows users to change default background, text and link colors in their inbox—has made it even more difficult to code HTML emails so that they render consistently in Gmail. The problem arises when subscribers use certain Themes and marketers don’t define the color of every background, text and link. Under certain circumstances you can end up with light text or links on a light background, or dark text and links on a dark background, making the email difficult or impossible to read.
Solution: Define all background, text and link colors.
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