Rule 6. Outsourcing buys you expertise

Getting an outside firm to make your site leaves you time to focus on your business. But you should also remember that for the software firm that makes your site, you are just one among its several clients. You cannot expect it to think up a Net marketing strategy for you.

 

Your decision on outsourcing must be guided by the specifics of your product and the talents of your team. Non-technical entrepreneurs should have Web developers build simple tools for maintaining the site; basic updates should not require knowledge of Java or a call to a coder working on three other projects.

 

Meta tags

The index page and other pages must have meta tags. These are of the form <meta name = ‘‘description'' content = ‘‘ '' >. There is a similar tag for keywords. Unless you have a huge advertising budget or compelling content, a sizeable chunk of visitors to your Web site will come from search engines, at least the first time they do so. Meta tags are the most important element in helping search engines classify and rank your site. When used intelligently, meta tags can help your site figure somewhere in the first 30-40 Web --sites when people search for a subject of their choice.

 

Search engines also place great importance on the title of the page. Your Web-site designer should submit your site to search engines. You must hire a committed design firm, which does not think its job has ended with making the Web-site.

 

Large pictures, which take an infinite time to load, should be avoided. If the opening page is full of large pictures without any text link, the viewer often leaves the site. Other culprits in the same category are Java applets, especially those used for navigation.

 

 

Animations

Flash or Shockwave animations don't allow you to download pages that use them. These tools must be restricted to the opening page and be kept short. If yours is a business site it is best to avoid using fancy animations as someone who logs on to your site will probably want to download files to read later.

 

Frames can be done away with. If at all they are used, care should be taken to see that the contents, especially the navigation frame should not be too long or broad as a scroll bar crops up and destroys the aesthetics of the page. The reason for this is that the Web designer makes a page and tests it on one display resolution and browser and not others. So what may look good on one resolution or browser looks lousy on another.

 

If you are using CGI or PERL files to receive forms and mail, you must make sure they work. There is nothing more irritating for the user than having a mail form return an answer ‘‘file not found.'' Hosting companies have the nasty habit of changing their rules without informing their clients. Make sure it does not happen to you.