Blog design mistakes you should avoid.

[Trish Collins]

In participating in Pro Blogger's 31 Days to a Better Blog, one of the tasks was to read some articles he linked to having to do with improving your blog. One post in particular caught my attention and I wanted to highlight it here.

43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid

A couple of these I would like to highlight:

5. Do not open new browser windows (I do this and need to fix it!)

12. Do not clutter your website with badges

19. Make sure users can search the whole website

32. Do not underline or color normal text

35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users. (Trish is adding in this article about how to add ALT and TITLE code to your images)

36. Do not use harsh colors

I'd love it if you checked out the whole list. It's a great list with lots of things that I hadn't thought of. What would you add to the list?

[Britt C.]

Oh see, I actually like the links to open in a new browser. Hmm. I don't have mine set to, because it seemed like the kind of thing that might annoy others, but I like it. Not the comments opening in a new window though, that's obnoxious.

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with #35-- off to read the article. Okay, I get it now, more or less. But I'm not sure why it's applicable since I don't use really any images on my book blog. Would it be helpful to add those to my writing blog? It'll have quite a few pictures on it eventually. Those things just make the pics come up in a Google images search, right?

Totally agree with #'s 12 and 32.

[Maw Books]

The alt and title tags is something that I had considered having it's own post because it's SO important. You really do need to label all images. One for ease of your readers who may be blind. Also when you hover over the image, a pop up title will show, which I like. And if the image doesn't load, the title still will, so at least users will know what it is.

What you have to keep in mind is that search engines can not "see" images. The only way that they can see what you are referencing with your photo is through the use of ALT and TITLE tags. Google Images is in my top 10 of referrers to my blog. WELL worth tagging your images correctly.

Also, I would highly recommend you begin adding images to your book blog. I must be completely honest in saying that the lack of book covers on your blog makes readers probably not come back, even if the post is great. We want to see what you are talking about. If I have no reference point, why should I continue to read the post or come back? If you browse most book blogs they all use book covers, so I question why you have chosen not to.

Also, as a side note. I never use the name of my kids on my blog but I do post a lot of photos of them. Make sure that the file name of the image does not contain their names otherwise you are still revealing it as anybody can see the file name. Just FYI.

[Britt C.]

I've been throwing in indiebound or amazon links with pics more lately. Do I need to adjust them this way? I'll try to be better about adding them to every post. I need to lower my bouce rate. :D

Good point about the kidlets. I don't post pics of them much, but I will remember to check. I absolutely don't use their names.

[Trish Collins]

I grab cover images off Google Images. Very easy that way. I find the Amazon covers can be not as clean looking if they have that "Look Inside!" graphic covering part of the cover.

[Britt C.]

True, very true.

I tend to use the Indiebound ones when I can. I figure I've got Amazon in my sidebar. Hadn't thought about grabbing them from Google Images.

[Amy]

That's exactly what I do!

[Anysia]

The Look Inside image is dynamically generated and can be easily removed (I learned this when I was volunteering for Mini Book Expo). What you do is:

1) Right-click on the image and choose 'Copy Image Location'.
2) Paste the link into a new tab or window
(e.g. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511bkAerCUL._SL160_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-big,TopRight,35,-73_OU01_.jpg)
3) Delete all of the URL that comes AFTER SL160 so it looks like this:
(e.g. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511bkAerCUL._SL160.jpg)
4) You can save the image now OR you can adjust the size by editing SL160 (160 is the HEIGHT in pixels so you can get a bigger or smaller image):
(e.g. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511bkAerCUL._SL300.jpg)
5) Save the image

Once again, I'm just full of random information. :-)

[Amy]

Me too, I prefer for the link to open up in a new browser window. I find it very annoying to have to lose where I was and have to hit back. I would never have thought to right click.......and so I think others might not either. I think that one is a matter of preference...I've seen it recommended that you do both.God, everytime I feel like I can take a wee little break, a thousand more things pop up that I need to do!

[Britt C.]

It's so true! I was starting to feel like my blog was doing well, but now I've got a list again!

[WordLily]

I very much like links to open in a new tab (not a new window, though). Enough so that I'll force them, nearly every time.

[Britt C.]

Yeah I use "cntrl+click" to make them open in a new tab most of the time.

[Amy]

yeah a new tab. will now force it. ;)