The web site must contain something that people want.
Though this seems obvious, there seem to be a lot of sites that are nothing more than people "just playing around" with creating a web site.
The web site must be acceptably fast for the user.
Slow-to-load sites, no matter how fancy and slick they may look will not be visited often.
The web site must be usable.
If the site is not usable, then everything else is irrelevant. The more "bells and whistles" you include, the lower the number of people who will find your site usable.
The web site must be easy to navigate without cluttering up its pages with too much navigation.
Visitors need to be able to find what they are looking for. However, putting links to all of your pages from every page makes your pages bulky.
The web site should be focused on one thing.
Rather than trying to be a "Jack of all trades", it's better to focus your energies into one area and become "a master". At this time, this seems to be what separates the "more successful" sites from the "less successful" sites.
I think it is important to make my sites usable by those who live in areas with slow and/or expensive Internet access.
As much as possible, I try to make my pages "backward compatible" with the older browsers, so people using older computers that require the older browsers can use my pages.
I keep pages for teachers separate from pages for students. Teachers may also want to look at pages for students, but students do not often want to look at pages for teachers.
I write the text on pages aimed at ESL/EFL students in simple English and as concise as possible.
I also write the text on pages aimed at ESL/EFL teachers as concise as possible.
I keep my personal pages and information separate from my ESL and TESL pages.
I make sure that the HTML code is only a very small percent of the total file size. I focus on a no-nonsense delivery of content.
I don't move files once they have been uploaded. Even if I need to reorganize the site, the reorganization takes place on the pages, not in the directories.
I use black for text, blue for unvisted links and a purple or reddish color for visited links.
I use "content markup tags" such as <H1> for headings rather than assigning font sizes such as <FONT SIZE=5>, <LI> for list items, instead of using <BR> to insert line breaks in a list.
I use a minimal "style sheet" on some pages. These style sheets only depend on tags that are already included in the HTML code. I do not add more tags in order to do fancy stuff with style sheets. A style sheet, if used properly, can enhance a page without adding much code. Examples:
I use light-colored, plain backgrounds defined by the BGCOLOR html code. I don't use images for backgrounds. I feel dark backgrounds are less friendly.
I keep my pages clutter-free.
I don't use images unless they really add to the content of the page. The exception being 3 or 4 pages that use images for the title. If I use an image, I put the WIDTH, HEIGHT and ALT code into the tag. I wouldn't use images for things that already have logical HTML tags. For example, dots, lines and background colors.
I don't use JavaScript, Java, CGI, SSI, or Flash for cosmetic purposes or just to create a "cool" effect. However, I do use these for interactive educational projects and so on. Example: