Software Conferences

Software Store

Proofread Read everything.

Even if you have already read it, read it again. Get someone else to read it. There's always something you will pick up on and have to change. See if you can reduce the amount of text by keeping it specific. Break up large text blocks into shorter paragraphs. Add clear headings throughout, and use lists so that users can scan easily. Do not forget about dynamic text too, such as alert boxes.

Links Do not just assume all your links work. Click on them. You may often forget to add "http://" to links to external websites. Make sure your logo links to the home page, a common convention. Also, think about how your links work. Is it obvious to new users that they are links? They should stand out from the other text on the page. Do not underline text that is not a link because it will confuse users.

Functionality Check

Test everything thoroughly. If you have a contact form, test it and copy yourself so that you can see what comes through. Get others to test your website, and not just family and friends but the website's target market. Sit back and watch how a user uses the website. It is amazing what you will pick up on when others use your website differently than how you assume they would use it. Common things to check for are contact forms, search functions, shopping baskets and log-in areas.

Graceful Degradation

Your website should work with JavaScript turned off. Users often have JavaScript turned off for security, so you should be prepared for this. You can easily turn off JavaScript in Firefox. Test your forms to make sure they still perform server-side validation checks, and test any cool AJAX stuff you have going on.

Validation

You should aim for a 100% valid website. That said, it is not the end of the world if your website does not validate, but it is important to know the reasons why it does not so that you can fix any nasty errors. Common oversights include no "alt" tags, no closing tags and using "&" instead of "&" for ampersands.

RSS Link

If your website has a blog or newsreel, you should have an RSS feed that users can subscribe to. Users should be able to easily find your RSS feed: the common convention is to put a small RSS icon in the browser's address bar.

Analytics

Installing some sort of analytics tool is important for measuring statistics to see how your website performs and how successful your conversion rates are. Track daily unique hits, monthly page views and browser statistics, all useful data to start tracking from day one. Google Analytics is a free favorite among website owners. Others to consider are Clicky, Kissmetrics (still in closed beta yet), Mint and StatCounter.

Part III: Essential Checks Before Launching a Website

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