| There are many advantages to having a simple website:  Start simple and stay simple. Stick to providing information rather than entertaining.
Simple is especially important with regards to site navigation.
The simpler the technologies used on the site, the less you have to test your site to ensure it will
work properly for most if not all of your visitors in the various browsers they use.
Too many of the scripted navigation systems don't work properly for everybody and/or they don't work
for the search engines. One of the large churches in my area has a website whose navigation system does not work at all in one
of the popular browsers.
With a simple website design it is much easier to add, delete and change pages. Anything that is easy
to do is much more likely to get done and that includes keeping a site alive and up-to-date.
Your webmaster moves out of town to a new locale. It will be much easier for the next webmaster to take
over the site.
Other members can more readily join the team. Consider a content managed system such as
Simple Updates.
Generally its the experienced site builders who show off by creating winkin', blinkin', rollin',
scrollin', bandwidth-hogging multimedia bazaars, festooned with every do-dat, gewgaw, and widget their pages can hold. A "do-dat"
is something on your pages that makes others who come to your site say, "How did you do dat?" The second or third time they
come to your site, they'll say, "Why did you do dat?"
Don't try to build a "killer web site." Leave that for those with lots of spare time on their hands.
Avoid having to learn any more HTML than you have to. Get a WYSIWYG web page editor instead. Do learn
the simple basics and keep an HTML manual handy as it will help from time to time. Don't try to keep up with the latest HTML
version. |
