Don't use images of text for sub-titles on your page.

• This, of course, adds to the download time of your page.
• A more important reason is that if you use text instead of images, then your visitors can use the "find" function of their browsers to jump to sub-sections.
• Also, remember there are still people who view the web without loading images.

Be careful with using CGI & SSI. Avoid it if possible.

• Be careful not to slow down your page by doing "cute" things with these.
  • SSI counters can really slow down your page.
  • SSI randomly-chosen images or quotations can really slow down your page.
  • Forcing people to use CGI to navigate your site seems inconsiderate.
  • Forcing people to use CGI to email you a message seems inconsiderate.

Various Views on the Use of Advertising

1. Don't Include Any Advertising.
   • Some (maybe most) teachers think that educational sites should be free of advertising.
   • However, even those people would probably find the following acceptable.
     • This page is a service of [Insert Company Name Here].
     • This page is part of the [Insert Company Name Here] web site.

2. Don't Include "Non-Paid-For" Advertising
   • (If you didn't agree with the previous suggestion, then read on......)
   • These are all forms of "non-paid-for" advertising.
     • "This page best viewed using ..."
     • "This site was chosen as site of the day by ..."
     • "This site was voted to be in the top 10% by ..."
     • "Member of ...."
     • Many think that "The Internet Link Exchange" and other banner exchanges are as bad as regular advertising. I doubt if very many people actually visit your site through this method. How many of those ads have you actually clicked? If you do decide to use their service or a similar service, put the ad at the bottom of your page. (Why should the ad be more important than what you are offering?)
   • These only slow down and clutter up your page (especially if you include an image, too) and don't really serve any purpose. If your site has a sponsor, then advertising is serving a purpose.

3. If You Need to Include Advertising, then...
   • Don't put the ad at the very top of your page.
     • It's your page. Your title should be at the top.
     • I would personally recommend putting the ad at the bottom of the page.
       • Your advertisers may not agree, though. However, if they are only paying per click-through, then it should be your choice.
       • Common sense would seem to dictate that a visitor is more likely to click to another site after he/she has read the page he/she came to read.
       • By putting the ad near the top of the page, you give your visitors a chance to click to another site. This means that there is a chance they will never make it back to your site.
       • By putting the ad at the bottom of the page, you will appear less like a "money-grabber" out to make money with your web site, and more like a teacher who needs advertising to help make ends meet.
   • Only accept non-animated GIF ads.
     • Animations will often distract from what you are trying to teach.
   • Never have more than one ad per page.

Choose a good page name.

• Don't choose a generic name such as "My ESL Pages"
• Avoid names or parts of names which have already been used. (eg. Cafe, Farm, Planet, Town, Club)
  • Browse TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links to see what site names are already being used.
• Put the page name in the <title></title>, so that people have a descriptive bookmark to your page.

Don't ever change URLs within your directory.

• Avoid "File Not Found" error messages. Don't rename files within your own directory.
  • Remember that visitors bookmark their favorite sub-pages
  • Pages of "links" may also have added links to your sub-pages.
  • Search Engines are likely to also have your sub-pages listed.
• If you have to change servers, then changing URLs is unavoidable.

Don't force experimentation on your visitors.

• Experimenting with javascript is fun, but forcing your visitors to use a javascript page when it is often more efficient using regular HTML is inconsiderate.
• Forcing visitors to use an image map is inconsiderate since it requires those with slow connections to download an image and makes your page unusable by those using a browser that doesn't support images or image maps.
• Pull-down navigation menus driven by JavaScript will leave your non-JavaScript visitors no way to get to your other pages.

Make your page user-friendly for the frequent user.

• Don't put in long introductions and include a lot of information that only requires one-time reading.
  • If you feel something like this is necessary, then put it on another page and offer a "for first-time visitors" link to that page.
• Slow-loading pages may keep visitors from returning.
  • Don't use lots of images or large images.
  • Don't embed files.
  • Don't use frames.
  • Don't use full-page column formatting.

TESL Specific Things to Consider

• About "links" pages.
  • Consider just linking to one of the major sets of links instead of making a "links" page yourself.
    • Spend time developing "content" rather than trying to maintain a set of links.
    • Links go "not found" so quickly, that unless you are always monitoring your page, your page soon becomes dated.
  • It may still be a good idea to maintain a short list of links for your students.
    • Only include links that you really expect your students to visit.
    • Then include a link to one of the major sets of links.
      (For example: TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links)
• Instead of trying to produce a "General ESL Site", focus on one area.
  • A few examples of successful focused sites.
    • Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
      • The primary focus is on listening exercises and quizzes.
    • Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students
      • The primary focus is on quizzes.
    • Dave's ESL Cafe
      • The primary focus seems to be "communication" and sharing ideas using the message boards.
  • It's better to have a "best" focused site, then an "average" general site.
    (A Jack of all trades, master of none.)
• Do something that hasn't yet been done.
  • There is little need to duplicate what someone else has done.
    • The exception, of course, is that you think you can do it better.
  • Visit a lot of the ESL/EFL sites to see what they don't have to offer.
    • For example: (as of Sept. 14, 1998) There seem to be no sites focused on these.
      • Minimal Pairs, Pronunciation
      • English for ...
        • Doctors
        • Auto Mechanics
        • Musicians
      • An Archive of Reading Materials for ESL Students.
      • etc.
    • For more ideas, see ESL/EFL Web Sites We Would Like to See
      A page where ESL Web users can let Web developers know what they would like to see.

Don't forget to do these things before you upload your page(s).

• Check your links.
  • Make sure you don't have any links which result in "Not Found" error messages.
  • If you have external links (links to pages on other sites), you'll have to keep checking the links from time to time.
• Check your spelling.
  Obvious, but many pages have spelling errors.

From Other Web Pages That I Have Written

How Does Your Page Rate?

• How User-Friendly is Your Page?
  Take this little quiz.
  http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/SMFguide/friendly.html

Optimize Your Web Page for Speed

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1. Eliminate everything that doesn't show on the surface of the page.

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• Eliminate multiple-spaces, tabs, returns, line-feeds, etc.
  Remember that in HTML any amount of "white space" is reduced to one-space on the surface of the page.

How to Do It

• If there is no JavaScript or <pre> code on the page.
  1. Find RETURN (\r or \n in some text editors) and replace them with a SPACE.
  2. Find TAB (\t in some text editors) and replace them with a SPACE.
  3. Find 2 SPACES and replace them with 1 SPACE.
     You may need to do this more than once.
• If there is JavaScript and no <pre> code on the page.
  1. Find 2 RETURNS (\r or \n in some text editors) and replace them with 1 RETURN.
     You may need to do this more than once.
  2. Find a RETURN + SPACE and replace them with 1 RETURN.
  3. Find a SPACE + RETURN and replace them with 1 RETURN.
  4. Find TAB (\t in some text editors) and replace them with a SPACE.
  5. Find 2 SPACES and replace them with 1 SPACE.
     You may need to do this more than once.

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2. Eliminate junk put in by HTML editors

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This excessive code is put in to make programming the HTML editor easier. I have yet to see one where the programmer has taken the time to fine-tune the HTML.

Here are some things which are often seen in code produced by HTML editors which can be eliminated.

• </center> followed by <center>
  There is no reason to stop centering, just to begin it again.
• </b> followed by <b>
  There is no reason to stop the BOLD, just to begin it again.
  Italics and other similar code can be removed in much the same way.
• <p><font size=-1>here is some text</font></p>
  <p><font size=-1>here is some text</font></p>
  <p><font size=-1>here is some text</font></p>
  You can eliminate the 2nd & 3rd <p><font size=-1> and the 1st and 2nd </font>. This is true for any repetitive FONT code -- color face, etc.

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3. Use minimal HTML code

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Avoid overusing text font changes and color changes.

Set the "text font color" in the <BODY> code instead of as a <FONT> code command.

Use <BASE FONT= > instead of setting the font for each line.

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4. Use short HTML code

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Here are some things which can be substituted in order to get a faster-loading small filesize.

• <B> for <STRONG>
• &nsp;
  Use a regular space.

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5. Don't use any images or use only a few small ones.

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It's probably not too bad to use one image for the title of the page, but with every image you add, your page will get slower.

If you do use images, cut the filesize to the smallest possible size. For GIF files, cutting the number of colors will cut the size of the file.

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6. Especially don't use images for these.

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Dividing Lines

There is perfectly good HTML code to produce lines. It displays on the page quickly and takes very little code.
For example:

• No image: <HR> is 4 characters.
• Image: <IMG SCR="gif/line.gif" HEIGHT="4" WIDTH="440"> is 45 characters (remember to count the spaces), plus you need to download the GIF image itself. More realistically, most people probably would also add <CENTER></CENTER> on either side of the code adding another 16 characters.

Dots

Using the Unordered list code <UL><LI></UL> is fairly concise and attractive.
See the difference:

• No image: <LI>
• Image: <BR><IMG SCR="gif/dot.gif" HEIGHT="12" WIDTH="12">

Sub-titles and other text on the page

Using an image to display text is slower than just displaying the text. An added negative point is that your visitor cannot use the browser's find function to find the sub-titles. Another added negative point is that it probably won't look good when printed on paper. Even with a 1200 dpi printer, web images print at 72 dpi. And yet another negative point is that visitors who don't load images will be totally lost unless you are sure that you add in the ALT code, which adds even more to your filesize.

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7. Don't use tables

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Table formatting adds a lot of HTML code to your page, making the filesize larger.

If you can get by without the table formatting, your page will be faster.

The table won't be seen on the visitor's screen until the whole table is loaded into the visitor's computer.

This can make your page appear to download more slowly than it actually does, since the visitor won't see anything, until the final </TABLE> is loaded.

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8. Don't use multiple-column page layout

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9. Don't use JavaScript

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Putting in a "cosmetic" JavaScript into your page doesn't accomplish much other than slowing down your page.

Some people clutter up their pages with things that don't really add to the content of their pages; clocks, scrolling messages, etc.

Using JavaScript to get "cool-looking" navigation is slower than simple links.

Not only will your filesize be larger, thus slower to download, some people will not be able to use your navigation since they may have a JavaScript incompatible browser or may have intentionally disabled JavaScript.

There are good uses of JavaScript.

If you are doing a game or a computer-scored quiz, then the JavaScript on the page has a useful purpose.

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10. Don't use CGI or SSI

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Using CGI or SSI for things that can be done with simple HTML code, just wastes the visitor's time.

Things like using pull-down menus and a CGI to get to the next page should be avoided, since simple HTML links would be more efficient.

Obviously, there are some uses of CGI which are useful.

Some things can only be done using CGI.

Commonly Seen Things Which Are Best Avoided

• Frames
  • Why People Do It
    • It seems to be easier to navigate the site.
    • Please note that there are some acceptable reasons for using frames. However, if they can be avoided, it is usually better.
  • Why You Shouldn't Do It
    • Visitors cannot easily bookmark the page they want to return to and must enter your site through the "front page", then navigate through your site until they find the page they want to return to.
    • It requires more pages to be downloaded (at least 3 pages), thus increasing the download time.
    • There were other reasons listed previously on this page. (I'll merge these two sections together.)
• 2-Column Page Layout
  • Why People Do It
    • It utilizes the whole "window" for those who have their browser's window set to a wide width.
    • For some, it's just a carry over from how things were done on paper.
    • It avoids frames, since you can put a left-hand (or right-hand) navigation "panel" on the same web page.
      • You should note, that this usually requires the visitor to download more data than if he had downloaded a frame, since the navigation part of the page is duplicated on each page.
  • Why You Shouldn't Do It
    • Your whole page (actually the whole table) must load before any of it begins to show on the visitor's screen.
    • It requires visitors with a smaller screen or visitors who have their window widths narrower than yours, to scroll horizontally to see your page.
    • It often requires the visitor to scroll down, then up, then down again.
    • It requires more HTML code, increasing the filesize, thus increasing the download time.

Other Things to Avoid

• Having the same link, but with different text showing.
  Example: Please feel free to send me a message. My email address is fake@email.address.com.
  • This often confuses the visitor.
  • It increases the filesize.
• "This page best viewed at a 640 X 80."
  • First, don't make this kind of page.
  • Second, even if you make this kind of page, don't admit to your visitors that you "are being inconsiderate" to some of your visitors.