My presentation on dos and don'ts for a successful website presented at the Asbury Park Press on October 29th, 2009.

1. Website Design Dos and Don’ts for a Successful Online Presence Brad Williams WebDevStudios.com

2. Who Am I?

3. Brad Williams CEO & Co-Founder, WebDevStudios.com Organizer NJ WordPress Meetup Co-Host SitePoint Podcast Advisor SitePoint Forums Co-Author of Professional WordPress (March 2010) Who Am I?

6. DO: Create easy to use navigation Menu dropdown expands horizontally to maximize space Menu dropdown shows page hierarchy

7. DO: Create easy to use navigation Website utilizes both horizontal and vertical menus Vertical menu showing page hierarchy

9. DO: Use web safe fonts

11. DO: Test your website in ALL browsers Using Internet Explorer 8

12. DO: Test your website in ALL browsers Using Chrome 3

14. DO: Make contact info very accessible Contact information is easily found in the header And in the footer on every page of the website Source: http://www.lesliecatorealtor.com/home.asp

16. DO: Create a website sitemap

17. DO: Create a website sitemap

18. DO: Create a website sitemap <url> <loc>http://webdevstudios.com/</loc> <lastmod>2009-02-05T04:43:39+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>daily</changefreq> <priority>1.0</priority> </url> <url> <loc>http://webdevstudios.com/contact/</loc> <lastmod>2009-10-09T13:55:24+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.6</priority> </url> <url> <loc>http://webdevstudios.com/questions/</loc> <lastmod>2009-10-08T19:02:23+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.6</priority> </url> <url> <loc>http://webdevstudios.com/support/wordpress-plugins/</loc> <lastmod>2009-10-07T13:19:32+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.6</priority> </url> <url> <loc>http://webdevstudios.com/support/wordpress-plugins/nextgen-public-uploader/</loc> <lastmod>2009-10-05T23:24:52+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.6</priority> </url> <url> <loc>http://webdevstudios.com/support/</loc> <lastmod>2009-09-26T13:56:39+00:00</lastmod> <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> <priority>0.6</priority> </url> Sitemap protocol: http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php

22. DO: Create a blog and use it

24. Your flash website on my iPhone

25. DONT: Use flash Adobe has an extensive list of flash supported mobile devices http://www.adobe.com/mobile/supported_devices/ If you use flash make sure to offer a non-flash alternative

27. DONT: Have a splash screen Source: http://www.bwaslotcars.com/

31. DONT: Use a crazy background Background overwhelms website design

32. DONT: Use a crazy background Background compliments website design

33. DONT: Use animated images

36. Brad Williams [email_address] Blog: strangework.com Twitter: @williamsba Everywhere else: williamsba Contact