Ever since I started designing templates for blogger, I often forget few important stuffs in the process. However, over the years, I've developed the habit of having a checklist so that I don't miss out anything. Well, in this article, I'll be sharing some 5 common mistakes that most of the web designers like me tend to forget when launching their blog/website. So, if you are web designer, then I suggest you to include the points mentioned below on your checklist of tasks to be performed for your client's template.
1. Cross Browser Testing
When it comes to web designing, the first and foremost thing would be to analyze your website on different platforms/browsers. There are so many web browsers and we cannot assume that everyone uses the same. Making your design features and function browser compatible is very important which many web designers tend to forget including me. So, I suggest to use "Browsershots" to check for layout issues on different browsers.
2. Mobile Compatibility
If you still think majority of the people use pc/laptops to access your website and you leave the minority, well your completely wrong. Things have started to change… Everyone has a smart phone these days and they access sites using the same. People are well informed about the same. So, they demand for a mobile compatible site as well which means the work for a web designer has doubled up. However, tools likeMobilizer and Mobify shall be helpful to check and debug issues related to mobile compatibility.
3. 404 Error Page
Well, this one is quite off target when it comes to web designers like me because we don't have the access to setup a 404 page on blogger. However, when you design a theme for WordPress, it is very important that you setup a 404 page. Basically, a 404 page prevents broken links on your website. So, I suggest you to setup one if you do not possess – please, try to make it innovative if you are web designer:)
4. Site map and Meta Descriptions
This shall be associated with the SEO of your design. It is important that you setup proper meta description and keywords for individual articles on your blog so as to get the maximum possible hits from the search engines. Though blogs are blogger do not have this facility, they can still add the post titles as meta tags for each article just like I do on my blog. You might refer to the following article if you need to install one –Add Meta Tags To Individual Posts On Blogger .
Secondly, setting up a sitemap is vital. Adding a site map to your web site, probably on the root folder of your website, will help the web spiders crawl your web site faster which, in turn, would drive heavy amount of traffic from the search engines. I'm sure you know a lot more than what I do, about webmaster tools. If not, I suggest you to read the articles on SML based on site maps & web master tools – use the search tool at the top right.
5. Valid HTML with Favicon
Valid HTML simply refers to HTML validated by W3C. It's just to ensure proper readability and few say it adds to SEO as well. So, it's better you validate your design with the same. Last but not the least, a favicon which I often forget when I design sites for my client. Now that blogger has enabled this option by default on its dashboard, I don't forget the same and it's pretty easy to add one. basically, a favicon is a 16×16 or 32×32 icon which is displayed on your address bar to the left of your URL.
