General Guidelines

1. Spelling and grammar should be correct.
2. Page titles should be informative (The are often displayed during search).
3. Pages should be consistent in appearance - consider using style sheets.
4. Links should all work.
5. If you have a large number of pages, there should be a search capability for the site.
6. Pages should be refreshed periodically. Show date of last revision and frequency of updates.
7. If your market is international, consider providing translated pages.

Security

1. If the user had to enter a password or otherwise be validated for security reasons, then after logout the user should not be able to return to a page using the browser’s "back" or "next" buttons.
2. All interactions for transmission of private information should be secure.

Compatibility

1. Browser compatibility: Page should work correctly in both Netscape Navigator 4.0+ and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0+ (or in the browsers listed in the relevant requirements specifications).
2. HTML should be valid (see our list of HTML Validation tools).
3. Load time should be reasonable - try to keep the total of all graphics less than 30K per page.
4. Pages should be compatible with all required monitor resolutions: 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480.
5. Pages should retain readability and reasonable layout when printed.  
6. Pages should be checked and pass all priority 1 tests in Bobby for use by disabled users.

Interactive Pages

1. Consider adding a Help feature and make sure it works. 
2. Forms should have indications to the user for mandatory fields.
3. All form fields should be validated to prevent submission of bad data (design should indicate if validation is at the client or server).
4. Error messages should be clear and instructive.
5. For pages with data being updated elsewhere, the page description should indicate if the user should refresh (or that the system automatically refreshes).
6. Input text fields should have the correct maximum and minimum number of characters according to the database where the data will be stored.
7. Input numeric fields should have the correct maximum and minimum limit according to the database where the data will be stored.

Promotion and Search

1. Meta tags should be defined and reflect content of page.
2. Meta-tags and page title tags should be set up BEFORE registration with search engines.
3. Register with search engines every few months.
4. Seek out directories of related sites and ask to be included.
5. Be careful when renaming pages - provide a link to new pages from "deleted" pages.
6. Pages not intended for view should be protected from spidering by web crawlers. Do not leave any draft work on your web server or protect your files with a robots.txt file.

Guidelines compiled by eNOVATION Inc. and Instantiated Software.