Website Deployment Checklist
Testing and “validating” your code is important. You should have both Netscape and Internet Explorer on your computer and view your page with both, as they interpret pages slightly differently. If your page won't show up at all in Netscape, you probably have forgotten to close a <table> tag or have other problems within your <table> structure. Netscape is much less forgiving of errors in your code than Explorer. I use HomeSite to edit my pages, and it has a built-in validator, but there are also websites and programs that will do this.
Pre-Upload Checklist:
- check for dead links (I use Xenu because it works offline so I can check the pages locally before I upload)
- check your pages in both Netscape and Explorer
- validate your HTML code
- make sure the titles and descriptions on each page are accurate (can be a problem when you use templates)
- if you're really finicky, make sure all the alt tags on images are filled and correct
- make sure your logo always points to your homepage
- reduce download times
- optimize your images
- externalize your scripts and style sheets
- aim for a home page of no more than 40K total