Polishing Your WebSite: Wax On Wax Off

The Finishing Touches

It's a beautiful sunny summer’s day. The temperature is crisp 77 degrees Fahrenheit and you just finished washing and waxing your new car to go cruising. It's going to be a great day! Your new website that you built is similar to that new car; and now it's time to polish it up before taking it for that inaugural spin. 

Once you are done adding the content to your website, it is important look over your site to see if anything could be added or taking away. This is the time to streamline your site. I don’t think there are any hard rules that you need to follow during this process but there are some important things to look for.

In the end, I chose to add a search bar onto my splash page and a counter. I also removed a previous ad that I had on my Art page, because it broke the clean lines I was trying to achieve. Lastly, I chose to change my grammar from 3^rd person to 1^st person since this is my portfolio.

Spelling and Grammar:

I am very guilty of making spelling and grammar mistakes. You want to make sure that you are using proper grammar and spelling so that your users aren’t distracted by the errors; which can result in your message, product, or idea not being conveyed effectively. I find that if possible, have a second pair of eyes look over you content before you publish.

Ads & Pop Ups:

Depending on your website you might have ads. If you do have ads, it is important to make sure that your ads are placed in strategic areas of your site, so that the ads are effective and your site layout flows well. There is a science to your website layout, so you should do some marketing research if you are not sure where to place your ads. In the end, it’s a game of addition and subtraction to find the right Feng Shui.

Functionality:

By this stage you should already know if all your links are working or if you have any broken links or images. However, this is a good time to double check and make sure that all of your images and links are functional. It would be slightly embarrassing to publish your site with a bunch of broken links.

If you have reached this point you should be proud, because you have a functioning website! I salute you! Now take it out for a spin!