Ruelicke.net

One of my hobbies, actually my favorite hobby, is to write HTML, CSS and PHP code. Or better: creating websites.

If I’m not working on an existing website, I like to think about creating a new one. Based on that, I thought it would be interesting to share my personal steps in creating websites, ranging from the first idea to the boredom of just maintaining the final page.

You can devide the whole process in 6 steps:

1. The Idea
2. Evaluation and Preparation
3. Creation and Testing
4. Reviewing and Optimizing
5. Release
6. Maintenance

Continue…

Who doesn’t know the situation when you release a website and within a short time you get complaints of users with browser X who say that xyz doesn’t work on the page.

These days there are many browsers out there and of course you can test your page on them if you have the time. Even then there is the chance you missed one or two and then you are back at zero. Also, it is possible that a design doesn’t allow users with a disability to use the page.

So what to do?

First of all it is a good advise to use valid HTML and CSS. Also make sure you don’t abuse JavaScript, Flash and Gifs. If you are reading this article, I assume I don’t have to tell you about these things…

But how can you validate your HTML, CSS and Accessibility?

Well, I will tell you which tools I’m using to validate my websites. These tools are not perfect, but if you use them properly you make sure that they cover each others weakness and leaving you with a valid website at the end. Also, there are some things you can’t validate by using a tool. You need to know the guidelines for HTML, CSS and Accessibility (WCAG) Continue…

Finally the announced new look for Google Webmaster Central is live. I visited Webmaster Central yesterday and it wasn’t updated, so please don’t punish me if this is “old” news…

The Webmaster Central Homepage

I am not sure, but I believe they didn’t only add new icons and changed the overall design, but also added one or two more options. I don’t recall seeing a link to gadgets for your website but maybe it was just hidden in a sub menu.

Overall it makes a really clean and easy to use look. I’m really tempted to try one or two of the new things I see on there…

What’s new on the Tools page?

First of all of course the look. They got rid of the greenish design and moved to the “Google Standard Blue” as I like to call it. It looks pretty now.

They also changed the navigation and it is way more intuitive now. However, they didn’t add any new features. They only removed the tool rating options and the improved the overview for each category.

What do you think about the new Google Webmaster Central page? Are you using it?

Further Reading: Webmaster Tools by Google

Kristarella at “This and that” had an interesting article about Google’s Analytics tool.

Although I use my Analytics account on a regular basis, I used it as a reason to have a closer look at my stats. While doing so, I remembered that I also have an account for Google’s Webmaster Tools (including Sitemaps). So I went there and discovered that I forgot to maintain it for quite some while. As I dug through the options and information provided I discovered a lot of useful options and features a webmaster should use.

The Overview

The sitemap overview, or dashboard as Google calls it, shows you a list of the domains you added for monitoring.
If you have no domains listed, add one.

When adding one you will have to verify that your are really the webmaster of that site.
There are two methods to verify: Continue…

The majority of the Internet users should have heard about the World Wide Web Consortium or better known as W3C.
The W3C is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (W3). It is arranged as a consortium where member organizations maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the W3.

Or as Michael Martin from ProBlogDesign.com described it in his article “Does Valid Code Help Your Blog?”:

The W3C is the internet’s daddy. They created HTML, CSS, and dozens of other specifications that govern the use of the technologies that makes the internet thrive today. Valid code is code which meets their guidelines, and can be tested in a validator, such as the HTML and CSS ones.

I don’t want to discuss if using valid code should be used in a blog or if it is actually helpful for a blog. To be honest, I had it in mind, but somehow ProBlogDesign.com beat me to it, which is actually helpful because I can skip this part

To sum Michael Martin’s article up I dare to say that it is useful to use valid code, or better: Web Standards, in a blog.
His reasons are all great, but I have to add one more reason why you should use Web Standards: chances are higher that your blog is accessible by all humans, especially those with disabilities.

Less known among the Internet users is the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the W3C. Although some webmaster and “webcoder” know and follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) put together by the staff of the WAI there are way more webmaster / “webcoder” who are not following these guidelines. Continue…