As a Web site owner, today you must do everything you can to draw traffic to your Web site. There are the obvious methods of doing so – links to your Web site, search engine optimization (SEO) and search marketing. All of these are an ongoing process which of course will take time and money.

Many people forget something obvious – visually drawing traffic to your site. The most common way this plays out is when you are navigating bookmarks or manually typing a URL in your browser address bar and a list of previously-visited Web sites appears. Along with those addresses and Web site titles, there may also be an icon appearing. This is called a favicon, and your Web site should not be without one.

Favicon is a contraction of “favorites icon” and is yet another way for your Web site to stand out. It is technically an icon file on your Web server that is referenced in your Web pages and is displayed in the browser. Below is an example of favicons which appear both on the address bar and tabs of my Firefox browser.

If you bookmark a Web page that has a favicon, it will also appear in your list of bookmarks, as shown in the accompanying screenshot. Favicons may also appear on mobile browsers as well. Note however favicons may not appear on older browser versions, as I have written before are still out there and in use. Most all current browsers will display them. As you can see, a favicon will help your Web page stand out among the others. It can also reinforce your branding beyond the Web page itself, helping lead people back to your Web site if they liked what they saw the first time.

So what happens if your Web site does not have a favicon? You will see a blank rectangle resembling a piece of paper or simply nothing where the favicon would be, as shown in the accompanying screenshot. As a result, the title of the particular Web page which was bookmarked will have to do all of the work to visually draw people. Again, how does the saying go, a picture is worth 1,000 words?

If your Web site does not have a favicon, contact your Web site designer or developer and ask for one. Of course if you are unsuccessful, you can always contact us at Dunkirk Systems, LLC and we would be more than glad to work with you to make it happen. A favicon is a literally small file that can have a large impact on your Web site.

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Every time I walk by this it cracks me up, so much that I had to take a picture of it and talk about it here, and how it related to the Web. Below is a photo of part of a sidewalk in Chicago near the northeast corner of Madison and Canal Streets. And what you think you may see is correct, a piece of metal bolted over a hole in the sidewalk.

As peculiar as it appears, unfortunately it is not an anomaly. There are many sidewalks in the Windy City which are patched with metal or plywood. This is most likely the result of the fact that many sidewalks are vaulted (or hollow underneath) which is a throwback to the days when the only way you could get goods into a building were through a lift in the sidewalk to the basement. As the logistics – and cost – to repair a vaulted sidewalk are high, many times something is just bolted over the hole to cover it.

Ideally, the owner of a building with a vaulted sidewalk should be aware of their condition and appropriately budget for its repair or replacement, just as they should be anticipating other repairs in the building. The same holds true for the owners of Web sites.

Web Sites Need Repairs Too

There are 2 cases when a Web site needs to be repaired, with one being driven by the business and the other by technology.

From a business standpoint, a Web site should be closely synchronized with the entity it represents. This includes everything from an accurate phone number to an extension of services offered by the entity to the Web site. If the content of your Web site frequently changes and the site doesn’t have a content management system (CMS) then you should consider adding one, thereby reducing the cost of manually maintaining content. If you send statements or other documents to your customers, making these available on your Web site could reduce labor and mailing costs to get these out. As social media tools become more robust, integrating them into your Web site will give you an advantage to reach out to your fans and followers, who hopefully will become customers.

Technical repairs to a Web site can greatly vary. Whenever a new version of a Web browser is released, your Web site should be tested against it. In some cases, some code on your Web site, such as JavaScript, may not work in a new version. The Web site itself didn’t change, the browser did. As Apple is not allowing Flash to be displayed on the iPhone and iPad, if you have it on your Web site, it will not display on these 2 devices. As smartphones become more and more common, your Web site may require a mobile version to best display on these smaller-screened devices.

Be Prepared

Just as with a home or car repair, Web site repairs will need your time to be addressed, will need to be scheduled and will cost money. Where you cannot always anticipate when repairs will be needed (just as you can’t predict when your refrigerator will stop working) it is best to set aside some funds for your Web site’s eventual repair. How much you will need to save will depend on the size and complexity of your Web site, and your Web consultant can help you with this decision-making. As well, they can help you with identifying potential problem areas and recommend a schedule for you as well. If they cannot, feel free to contact Dunkirk Systems, LLC, as we are more than glad to talk to you about how to best manage your Web site.

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The next Chicago ExpressionEngine Meetup will be on Tuesday, May 18, at OfficePort Chicago in the Loop. During the first Meetup the idea of "opening the books" and sharing our work in EE was discussed. We now have our first volunteer for what will certainly be a lively discussion and learning experience for all.

Eryan Cobham of Cobwebs Consulting will be subjecting himself to a "code review" by the group for a site he is currently building using EE, and facilitating a discussion on the proper way to do accomplish certain functions in EE. Some topics may include: using extensions, URL segments, and any other questions that people may interest people.

View the details on this event and RSVP on the Meetup site. For more information and to join the group, visit the Chicago ExpressionEngine Meetup at Meetup.com.

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As a Web consultant with Dunkirk Systems, LLC, I manage domain names for my active clients. Whether it's a new domain name or one that has been registered for years, I recommend to my clients they extend the registration of their domains for several years out.

Why? There are 2 primary reasons.

The first is a domain name whose 'age' is beyond 1 year has a higher ranking than a newly registered domain name for 1 year. This comes from both computers and humans. Some search engines, namely Bing, use the age of a domain in its search results algorithm. As well, people can give more credence to an 'older' domain name if they are questioning a Web site tied to a domain name or valuing the price of a Web site and its domain name.

The second reason is administrative. If a domain name is registered for multiple years you do not have to worry about renewing it every year. Of course you should have your domain name registered with a reliable and ICANN-approved registrar or through a domain name reseller like Dunkirk who does so and monitors your domain names as well.

You can register a domain name for up to 10 years in advance, why not do so? If you have any questions on domain names, feel free to comment here or contact me at Dunkirk directly.

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While visiting with friends over the weekend, something caught my eye on their notebook computer. It was their work PC, and they had Internet Explorer open to their personal iGoogle page. What I saw on the page was a warning message, as shown below.

The message in a yellow box, prominently positioned below the search box read, ‘You’re currently using an older web browser. Upgrade now!’ When I pointed this out to my friend, she muttered something under her breath about this being an old, slow computer with old software on it. Sure enough, when I checked the version of the browser, it was a version of IE 6. When I pressed the issue, she said they cannot update the browser and everyone has issues with it.

This issue is not unique, and many corporate computer users will have old hardware and software. Many large companies have common “images” of the software on a computer and it is a big deal when something is changed on it, short of regular Windows patches. As a result, many corporate users have old versions of browsers. Since many people may be browsing to your Web site during the day or on a work PC from home, it is something you need to take into consideration ion the design and functionality of your Web site. Talk to any Web designer and developer and they hate old versions of the browsers, and they have a good reason for this angst, as older browsers do not support newer design and functional capabilities.

Get The Facts With Analytics

Issues with older browsers may impact some Web sites more than others. This depends on the demographic of the visitors to the Web site. The sure way to see if this is an issue or not is to check the analytics of your Web sites. By checking what browsers and versions of those browsers are loading your Web site, you will know if this is a large issue or not. Based on this information, you may have nothing to worry about, or you may need to have a conversation with your Web designer and developer to discuss appropriate action, from changes to warning messages. This is a conversation we at Dunkirk Systems, LLC frequently have with our clients and with prospective clients, and we are more than glad to talk with you about this as well.

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