Combat Web Site Clutter

by Dan Burbank

No one launches a cluttered web site. A cluttered web site, like a messy house, gets that way slowly. It escapes the owner's notice at first. Then one day, as you're throwing away two tons of old magazines you think, "where did all this junk come from?"

The web site you started off with was clean, well organized and simple. But a new section there, an announcement here, a few swapped links and your web site's overall usability and effectiveness begin to deteriorate.

Tell Tale Signs

How do you know it's time to take on your site's clutter problem? When any of the following apply, it's time.

1. Excessive Scroll. If your homepage, or any other critical page on your site, scrolls and scrolls and scrolls, then scrolls some more -- it's cluttered. It's time to delete or move some of that information.

2. No Categories. When you add a new page to your site, do you have specific folder where all of that type of information lives? And does your site reflect this organization? If pictures of all the products you have on clearance are saved in the same directory as the copy you used for a coupon eight months ago … and it's all appearing on your homepage - it's cluttered.

3. Navigation Problems. You added four new pages to your site last week but only linked to them from your homepage. You'd link to them from your site's other pages but there are 12 of them and you haven't had time to download each one, edit it and upload it. There's clutter here.

4. Here's a Map. If you find yourself giving potential visitors to your web site explicit directions about where they'll find the product or information they need on your site you've probably got clutter. It's the "there's a system to my mess" syndrome and none of your visitors see a method to it.

Restoring Order

The site has been online for years and taming it simply seems out of reach. Relax, there are techniques and tools you can use to regain control.

1. The Site Map

Catalog every single page that exists on your web site. Next, group like pages together and begin to sort them into an outline format with categories and subcategories. If a page doesn't seem to fit neatly into one of your categories, consider splitting it into two pages if you can. Or, allow it to live in two distinct categories.

After the site is outlined convert it into an HTML document linking up all the pages and publish it to your site. Without embarking on a full-blown redesign you've added structure to your site. As an added bonus, search engines love site maps.

2. Divide and Conquer

Your site map has already helped you establish a good set of categories and subcategories, so why not put them to work? Use the groupings as the basis for a new navigational menu for your site and publish it on every page.

Just use the highest-level categories for the site wide navigation. When you get to categories with several subcategories add a secondary navigation to guide visitors.

And don't forget to break up those long sections of content with lots of bold headers.

3. Search

Google and Yahoo have made names for themselves by being able to organize the Internet's clutter. Why not put search to work for your site? By simply copying and pasting a few lines of code from Google into your site you can allow users to search your site easily.

Visit www.google.com/searchcode.html and be sure to grab the code for web search with site search.

4. Go Dynamic

Is your site is growing faster than you ever imagined? Do you find yourself creating page after page of static HTML or having to tweak dozens of page to make one change site wide? It may be time to pursue a content management system or shopping cart software.

Using a database like MySQL along with PHP scripts can simplify the process of updating and maintaining a large site. Luckily you don't have to start from scratch. There are a variety of PHP/MySQL content management systems available online (some for free). Sites like Open Source CMS are a good starting point for exploring the possibilities.

03.05.2007. 00:10

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