Tagged: Web Site Design

Bad Cursors

I’ve been to some sites lately which have some pretty fantastic cursors. You probably know what I’m talking about – cursors that have little balls dangling from them, look like a heart or consist...

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Bad DHTML

I know that dynamic HTML is the coolest thing since HTML was invented. I love dynamic HTML. Using this new, wonderful set of tools, you can create web sites that are incredible! You can...

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Bad Webrings

If you’ve spent any time at all looking over this web site, you will quickly find that we are great fans of webrings. The webring system is an excellent way to bring small, steady...

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Bad Advertising

Okay, we know we all need to pay the bills. I know that many of us want to get traffic to our web sites. And some of us just want to make enough money...

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Bad Long Pages

One of the sins committed by many inexperienced webmasters is the creation of very long pages. I’ve seen this most often on sites created at universities, although it can happen anywhere. It’s very annoying...

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Bad Organization

I’m sure you’ve visited web sites which seem to have been organized by a monkey or chimpanzee. Well, I’ve been to sites where a money could have done a better job. Lousy menu systems...

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Bad ActiveX

ActiveX uses an interesting method for enforcing security … it doesn’t. Well, that’s not exactly true. What happens is when a web page requests an ActiveX control the browser determines if that control is...

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Bad Animations

Animation can turn a blah, boring website into a work of art which draws visitors back again and again. That’s rare because animation is generally not used very well. Most webmasters go through several...

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Bad Graphics

I know you like to put graphics on your page. There is little better than a site which has been done by a professional graphics designer. The perfect balance between graphics, color, fonts, photos...

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Search Engines Vs Usability

Sometimes people seem to make a choice between making their site pretty for search engines or making it useful for people. I am always fascinated when I hear this discussion. In fact, it is interesting to hear someone say "I'm removing my Webring because Google will get annoyed" or "I'm deleting my links page because god, uh, Google, won't like it", or "search engines don't use meta tags, so I took them all out". These comments all ignore the basic datum about the internet. It's about PEOPLE! The internet is not about some silly, stupid little robots, or some faceless idiotic rules enforced by their creators. The internet is about communication.

Yes, search engines are a part of that communication, as it is one (and only ONE) want of getting people to your site. But there are an infinite number of other ways to get people to your site, from viral marketing to Webrings to link exchanges to contests to newsgroups to whatever else you can think of.

But if your site does not cater to PEOPLE, it will fail. Period.

Yes, it's a good idea to make sure your site is known to the engines and known well. But that is NOT the purpose of the site. The purpose of the site is to communicate. Pure and simple.

Google's customers are advertisers; the searchers are the commodity that's being sold to the advertisers. The search engine is the bait used to get the commodity to view the advertisements. SEO types tend to reduce the value of the bait, which in turn lowers the value of the commodity, which in turn makes the advertisers (the customers) more likely to look elsewhere.