General Tips for Martial Arts Web Design

This article gives some general ideas on what to avoid and to do when designing a web site.

Hosting:

Hosting these days is cheap. There are various free hosting services out there, but the ads that they add to your site can be a real pain. If you insist on free hosting, avoid those that include pop up ads or have too many banner ads. But why bother, you can get a hosting account for about $5 a month or even less.

Site Navigation:

Some really bad sites that I've seen as far as navigation goes comes in two forms.

The first are those that puts all their information on one page. Try to break up the information into separate pages.

The second are those sites with a lot of pages. Put your links to pages either at the top (just below your logo/header) and/or on the left or right of the page, Make it easy for users to navigate your site and find all your pages. If you have a lot, consider breaking it up in sections. Let's say you have about 5 separate services that you offer and you have a page explaining each. You can have a page called Services and a general short description of each page with a link to a more detailed page.

Search Engine Optimization:

There are various SEO (Search Engine Optimizers) out there that offer their services for a fee. Don't bother. Here some tips to get higher ranking at a search engine.

• Unique Content - The more unique content on your site, the better the ranking you will get. So your best bet is to write your own articles on various subjects that pertains to your industry. Don't copy articles from other websites. Besides being against the law, it also won't help very much in search engine ranking. If you are not very good at writing articles, consider finding someone who is.
• Link Exchange - Try to have other sites link to your site. Maybe you have a friend that already has a site, ask them to put a link to your site there. You can also contact other webmaster from various sites and see if you can exchange links. Also, if you are an active member of a forum, you can put a link in your signature to your site. Just make sure you are not breaking their forum rules before you do.
• Submitting to Search Engines and Directories - Submit your site to both Google, and Yahoo. This will put you on the list for your site to be indexed by the robot. Really no need to bother with other search engines as those two are the most popular. You may also want to submit your site to dmoz.org. The thing you should be aware of there, is you really need to find the most appropriate category for your site and only submit it once. Also, it is not uncommon for a site to site for 3 or more years before it is reviewed and there is no guarantee of listing even after it is.

Text Format:

Here are some things you should avoid when it comes for formatting text:

• Font Types - Do not use more than one font type on your site.
• Bold - Never write in all bold. Use bold to emphasize a word or phrase only.
• All CAPS - Never write in all CAPITAL LETTERS. On the internet, that is considered YELLING!!. Also can be rough on the eyes.
• Font Colors - Careful using different font colors. Stick with one color and don't change it unless you really know what you are doing. Like bold fonts, you can use it to emphasize a word, just be carefully you don't use it too often.

Page Layout:

Each page should have a Header (top of a page) and a Footer (bottom of a page) that is found on all pages. Your Header can include your logo, navigation bar, and maybe an ad to a special deal you are having. The footer should include copyright information, and some general contact information. Don't make either the Header or Footer to large. Keep it compact and neat.

Listing Emails:

Unfortunately, creating an email link will open that email up to a lot of spam. Here is how it works. Spammers use a program that searches websites for email addresses. Once it finds one, it lists your email address in a database. Once there, it will never go away. Don't be fooled by those remove me links. All that does is verify the email address is valid.

So what can you do? One easy way is to make your email an image. Just don't create an email link out of the image. Another is to use a contact form to send emails. These use what is called scripts (basically little programs), and there are many free ones out there if you search. There are also javascripts that can encrypt your email link.

Images:

One thing to remember about any image is to keep it small. That means you will need to resize the image with an image editing program. I've seen many people add images to their website and only resize the image through the HTML editor. What that means is the image is resized on the screen only, the actual size of the image has not changed. Now if you have a modem connection, the page could take forever to load. Which usually means the visitor just leaves. You need to actually edit the image itself and change the pixel size.

If you wish to show a larger size of an image, like in a photo gallery, you need two images of the same photo. One small image on the main gallery page and one large one you link to. So when a visitor clicks the image, it opens a window showing the larger version.

Conclusion:

Honestly, there is more to web design than this article can give you. There are whole classes on the subject. What I gave you are some tips with the assumption you have at least some small experience designing your own website. One thing I did not mention is website authoring programs. If you are a novice at this, find one that is cheap and easy to use. I use Dreamweaver which can be confusing to novice and is expensive. Microsoft Front Page can be easier to use but I would recommend something a little less complex. There are other programs that are designed for a novice. Check out your local computer store and talk to someone who knows their stuff.