I was browsing the web today (as I am known to do on occasion) and came across yet another website with the familiar “This site is best viewed in IE” text displayed prominently. Don’t people realize that they are losing traffic and inevitably also losing money by limiting their visitor base? Here are my tips and suggestions for optimizing a website.

First, never EVER optimize for just Internet Explorer. FireFox popularity is growing at an exponential rate and FireFox users can no longer be ignored. I use FireFox myself and would never go back to IE. Most FF users feel the same. I suggest that every web admin have the latest version of FireFox installed if only to ensure that each website you make is fully compatible. If you have access to a Mac computer and the Safari browser then I also suggest making sure that your websites work there as well. Chances are if it works on IE and FF perfectly and passes XHTML validation then you are probably safe on most browsers. Now, onto XHTML validation.

I’m preaching to myself on this subject as well, but, when it comes to XHTML validation it is always smart to make sure your websites pass validation. By keeping your HTML up to date with web standards you will greatly decrease your cross-compatibility issues. When creating a website for a client I always run each page through the w3 XHTML validator available at http://validator.w3.org

Another important thing to remember is that a majority of internet users are STILL using 800×600 resolution. 1024×768 is being pushed as the standard now, but, last I checked 800×600 is still considered the standard. This means that the main content of your website should never extend past the 760 pixel mark. Some websites have side bars on the right side that can only be seen in higher resolutions, but for the most part you will always see that the important content is within vertical scrolling view on an 800×600 resolution monitor. I have a huge widescreen monitor but I never view websites at full screen. In fact I split my screen into two FireFox windows each approximately 1024 pixels wide. Sometimes, depending on what other programs I want to have open I will size my internet windows to 800 pixels wide. Realistically there is no reason that a website should EVER be wider than 1000 pixels. I do not currently own any websites that are more than approximately 760 pixels wide.

Lastly, search engine optimization is a very important aspect of the optimization process. Unless you are paying for advertising, you are going to have a hard time getting new visitors without having good search engine rankings. The rules and strategies for search engine optimization neve have been 100% clear, but, there are a few things that you can definitely do to make sure you have a sporting chance with the serps. First, passing XHTML validation will never hurt. Bots read your pages differently than a web browser, but, if you have coding errors, it could effect how your site is seen by Google, Yahoo, etc. Next, make sure that you include proper META tags. The most important META tags you should have are keywords and description tags. Use keywords relevant to your content and a description that captures your website as a whole. There is a LOT more to search engine optimization than I just described, but, I’ll save the deeper things for another day.