The development of a website is just like the development of a software package in any industry. The development must be an integrated process of many processes throughout the total product life cycle. No part can be seen as something that is added at the end of the design, development, production, maintenance, and redesign. The process consists of rapid prototypes reviewed by the customer all along the way in a spiral prototyping approach. The old adage of building a little, testing a little, and learning a lot is an attribute of the prototyping paradigm. The big bang theory is not appropriate in the website development process (or any software development process, for that matter). Barry Boehm is credited with defining this technique back in mid 1980s and embraced by the Department of Defense and its contractors for large software development projects. About twenty years later, a group proposed Agile Software Development for smaller software development projects. Both espouse some of the same type golden nuggets to achieve successful product release. Tools are adopted and institutionalized for every phase of the process. The tools coupled with testing will help assure the end product is standards compliant and browser independent. All of these proven approaches are appropriate for website design that will facilitate search engine optimization.

Lessons Learned

The operational designer websites, as well as their client websites which I have reviewed, do not get high grades when tested with readily available website testing tools. Adoption by website designers of proven development and testing methodologies, mature development environments, attention to standards, client viewing device needs, technology maturation, technology obsolesce, and attention to details is patently lacking.

The internet has seen a proliferation of websites by individuals with no knowledge of the underlying technologies, standards, tool sets, pitfalls, education, training, or even a desire to make the commitment to become a professional in this field. Instead, they are led to believe that the DIY tool provided by a web hosting company with the provided templates is all that is needed. Website Workflow Process is a modern day wild west. There is a lack of understanding of best practices, their adoption, and institutionalization in the website design companies and, for sure, in the DIY. I have seen a business owner upload a restaurant menu that was a 22 MB PDF file (this person does not know what he/she does not know). Wait until a customer on a dialup tries to download that menu.

All you have to do is look under the hood, so to speak. Just some examples of issues found via testing on websites developed by "professional website designers" and not novices that are espoused as "optimized for search engines," winner of best website awards, and numerous others all of which are unnamed websites.

More specifically some of the testing showed the following issues of varying severity to be on these professionally developed websites:

• Misspelled Words

• Missing Site Map

• Invalid W3C

• No Robots Text File

• Missing Image Alternate Text

• Missing Meta Description

• Meta Description Too Long

• Missing Title

• Title Too Long

• Readability Too High

• Missing Favicon

• Flash for Mobile Devices

• Colors Make Letters Illegible

• Broken Links

• Splash Page

• Page Too Long

• Visited Link Does Not Change Color

• Text Size

• Too Little Text

• Link with Label "Click Here"

• Files Too Large

• No Google Analytics

Most of these issues could have been addressed during the prototyping website development paradigm discussed earlier. One should use this information as a way to gauge the quality assurance internalized within the website design company, tools to assist in the processes, education and training of staff, and commitment to product excellence. We need to see pride in the final website product that has embraced a website process that emphasizes all facets of the process and not just the visual beauty.

The fact that some of these websites have received national recognition with significant shortcomings exposed in testing the deployed websites gives me pause on the judges, their qualification, and criteria used for the best website selection. These website awards cannot be beauty contests. These awards must also reflect the quality of the website workflow process that is hidden but revealed when tests are conducted on the contestant’s websites.