Creating Web Sites Bible, Third Edition

Chapter 22. Maintaining Your Site

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Testing your site

• Coping with visitors changing your site

• Maintaining consistency on your site

Even though the bulk of the work you perform on a typical Web development project deals with the actual creation of the site, a fair amount of time still needs to be devoted to site maintenance. In fact, it is the maintenance of a site that can often make or break it. This chapter focuses on ways to lengthen your site's functional life span through effective site maintenance.

Testing Your Site

Before uploading your site to a server and taking it live for all to see on the Internet, it is important to do some thorough testing. At this point, you want to determine that everything is working as you anticipated by ensuring the following:

• There are no broken links.

• The download times are acceptable for the targeted audience.

• All content is legible and functional in targeted browsers.

When you begin testing your site, it is helpful to have a table or spreadsheet containing information about your testing. For example, you can create a table that lists your targeted browsers across the top and targeted platforms down the left side. After you test each one, record your findings in the appropriate spaces. Table 22-1 gives you an idea of how this would look.

Table 22-1. Testing Spreadsheet

	Konqueror	Safari 3.x	Opera 9.24	IE 6.x	IE 7.0	Firefox	AOL	PocketPC Mobile Phone	iPhone
Windows 98
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Mac OS 8