Things a Website Developer or Web Designer should do for the Client
Things that a web developer should do for the client (or their own website), as part of the job.
The basic rules here are:
- Help them by getting it right from the start.
- You’re the expert so you should know about and be doing this stuff.
- Don’t wait until they ask for things that should already have been done correctly.
1. Make and set up a 404 error page (and any other likely error messages/handlers)
The default 404 error page on most sites is abysmal offering absolutely no help to the user.
Introduced to client that 404 error page is one of the most important also in a website.
2. Install a favicon.
Even if it’s a generic one though it’s much more impressive for the client of you actually create one from their logo. Why important? Saves 404 errors in the logs and looks nice as well (on Mozilla and Opera anyway, IE seems to have lost the plot on this even though they used to have it right).
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Installing favicon make website professional, unique and corporate .
3. Install a robots.txt file
Again, even if it just has “User-agent: *” (or even just a # comment) it will at least save the 404 errors from robots looking for it. Better still add the dirs or files you don’t want indexed by robots to it.
robot.txt used in SEO and helps also in the website
4. When setting up the DNS, check it to see that there are no errors.
It’s amazing how many errors are out there in DNS records. Here’s a great free tool for you to play with.http://dnsreport.com/
5. Set up the email server correctly.
Help to set up emails like in Outlook.
6. Domain forwarding and email addresses.
This work can be done in cpanel side the client must know how it works also.
7. Adding Metadata
Make sure all your metadata is in place and where required unique on every page in the site. This is a workflow and template issue. We have a base template that we start every site with, or at least take the essentials from.
8. Validate the whole site
Validate the website in some error.
9. Document your code and script used
Make a documentation of the website always
10. Make Statistics
Teach some statistics like google analytics .
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Web Design Best Practices Checklist
Background Information
- URL:
- Audience:
- Subject:
- Developer:
Page Layout
- Appealing to target audience
- Consistent site header/logo
- Consistent navigation area
- Informative page title that includes the company/organization/site name
- Page footer area — copyright, last update, contact e-mail address
- Good use of basic design principles: repetition, contrast, proximity, and alignment
- Displays without horizontal scrolling at 1024×768 and higher resolutions
- Balance of text/graphics/white space on page
- Good contrast between text and background
- Repetitive information (header/logo and navigation) takes up no more than one-quarter to one-third of the top portion of the browser window at 1024×768 resolution
- Home page has compelling, interesting information above the fold (before scrolling down) at 1024×768
- Home page downloads within 10 seconds on dial-up connection
Browser Compatibility
- Displays on popular versions of Internet Explorer (7+)
- Displays on popular versions of Firefox (3+)
- Displays on popular versions of Opera (9+)
- Display on popular versions of Safari (both Mac and Windows)
Navigation
- Main navigation links are clearly and consistently labeled
- Navigation is easy to use for target audience
- If images, Flash, or DHTML is the main navigation, clear text links are in the footer section of the page (accessibility)
- Navigation is structured in an unordered list (accessibility)
- Navigation aids, such as site map, skip navigation link, or breadcrumbs are used (accessibility)
- All navigation hyperlinks “work” — are not broken
Color and Graphics
- Use of different colors in page backgrounds/text is limited to a maximum of three or four colors plus neutrals
- Color is used consistently
- Color has good contrast with associated text
- Color is not used alone to convey meaning (accessibility)
- Use of color and graphics enhances rather than distracts from the site
- Graphics are optimized and do not significantly slow download
- Each graphic used serves a clear purpose
- Image tags use the alt attribute to configure alternate text to display if the browser or user agent does not support images (accessibility)
- Animated images do not distract from the site and either do not repeat or only repeat a few times
Multimedia
- Each audio/video/Flash file used serves a clear purpose
- The audio/video/Flash files used enhance rather than distract from the site
- Captions are provided for each audio or video file used (accessibility)
- Download times for audio or video files are indicated
- Links to downloads for media plug-ins are provided
Content Presentation
- Common fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman are used
- Techniques of writing for the Web are used: headings, bullet points, short sentences in short paragraphs, use of white space, etc.
- Fonts, font sizes, and font colors are consistently used
- Content provides meaningful, useful information
- Content is organized in a consistent manner
- Information is easy to find (minimal clicks)
- Timeliness: The date of the last revision and/or copyright date is accurate
- Content does not include outdated material
- Content is free of typographical and grammatical errors
- Content provides links to other useful sites
- Avoids the use of “Click here” when writing text for hyperlinks
- If standard link colors are not used, hyperlinks use a consistent set of colors to indicate visited/nonvisited status
- If graphics and/or media is used to convey meaning, the alternate text equivalent of the content is provided (accessibility)
Functionality
- All internal hyperlinks work
- All external hyperlinks work
- All forms function as expected
- No JavaScript errors are generated
Accessibility
- If images, Flash, or DHTML is the main navigation, clear text links are in the footer section of the page
- Navigation is structured in an unordered list
- Navigation aids, such as site map, skip navigation link, or breadcrumbs are used
- Color is not used alone to convey meaning
- Image tags use the alt attribute to configure alternate text to display if the browser or user agent does not support images
- If graphics and/or media is used to convey meaning, the alternate text equivalent of the content is provided
- Captions are provided for each audio or video file used
- Use attributes designed to improve accessibility such as title and summary when appropriate
- Use the id and headers attributes to improve the accessibility of table data
- If the site uses frames, use frame titles and place meaningful content in the noframes area
- To assist screen readers configure the html element’s lang and xml:lang attribute to indicate the spoken language of the page.
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