Website Tips for The Rabbit and Cavy Breeder

So you have a rabbit or cavy website!  Congratulations on joining us here on the world wide web!  Having your own website is great for breeders and can help get your rabbitry or caviary known, along with providing a means to sell rabbits and cavies.   If you don't have a website but want one, click here to get started.

I think it important that all rabbit and cavy breeders' websites be the best that they can be so we are well-represented on the internet! A well-designed, fast-loading and easy-to-use website will attract visitors and keep them coming back.  This page is devoted to providing web development help for breeders and clubs.  If you know of a useful link or article that could be listed on this page, please email me!

Below are some basic areas in website design and usage that usually can stand some improvement:

Fast-loading pages:  Make sure your pages are fast-loading for visitors, and remember, many surfers still have dial-up internet access which can take large pages forever to load.  Overall, keep decorative graphics to a minimum, especially flash graphics, and make sure all your rabbit and cavy photographs are optimized for quick-loading on the web.  Make additional pages to accommodate several pictures instead of putting them all on one page or make your pictures into thumbnails! Links to help:

How To Optimize Pictures For The Web by E How

Optimize Your Graphics For a Fast Loading Site

Optimizing Images For The Web

Optimizing The Use of Pictures With Your Free Web Hosting Home Package

Making Thumbnails For Your Graphics

Navigation: Take a serious look at your website navigation - or how others get around in your website - can visitors find their way around easily?  Your visitors should be able to get from page to page in a logical and easy-to-find way.  Make sure you have links, on every page, to your home page so it is easy for visitors to return.  Putting links in the same areas of each page, consistently throughout your site will make it easier for visitors to find their way around.

If you use graphics for links to other pages (not recommended), are the links apparent to visitors? Or are they searching for how to get to other pages?  Do your text links clearly describe the page it will jump to?  Or are visitors wondering what that link means? 

Ideally, smaller sites should have all pages accessible from the Home page, and larger sites should have a site map available for visitors to find specific pages or information without having to work through an extensive navigation system.

The Basics of Navigation

Keep Your Navigation Consistent

Dynamic Drive DHTML navigation scripts

Usability Tip: Give Visitors A Map

Contact Information for Rabbit and Cavy Breeders:  Most of us have rabbits and cavies for sale through our websites.  It surprises me to find that many rabbit and cavy websites I visit, do not have easy-to-find contact information where one would normally expect to find it (home page, for sale page, etc)  Provide your email address on all applicable pages!  Due to internet safety concerns, I would never list your home phone number or address - you are asking for trouble if you do this!

Tips For Using Email Safely

Spelling and Grammar:  Now, everyone makes mistakes, but I have been to many sites that are completely littered with obvious spelling and grammar errors.  Poor spelling and grammar can give visitors the impression that you are not professional or serious, even if you really are! 

Take the time to read through the content on your sites, check your spelling and grammar, and when in doubt, change the info to something you are sure of or ask someone for help.  Believe me, I am no English major and I make my share of mistakes, but I am constantly re-reading to see if I can spot mistakes in my own work!

Punctuation Tips

Elements of Grammar

Choosing colors and backgrounds:  It is very exciting to design your own site and choose from the many colors and backgrounds to use!  Unfortunately, many people still are using backgrounds and colors that make viewing the content on the page difficult!  Make sure you have enough contrast between your text and backgrounds so the page is easily-readable!  Below are some links to help you choose backgrounds and colors for your site:

Light Speed Web Graphics

Extravaganza Backgrounds

Web Design Color Guide

HTML Basics: Backgrounds and Colors

Graphics for your website: You may want to spice up your site with some ready-made graphics.  As with pictures, keep your graphics to a minimum to ensure pages load quickly for all viewers. 

There is a wealth of ready-made and free-to-use graphics available on the internet.  There are also companies that will make graphics for you for a small cost.  Below are some links to help you find some of these:

Butterfly Clipart

Island Gems Rabbit Clipart

IconBazaar Rabbit Clipart

Feeble Minds

Free Rabbit Clipart by Pamela Nock

Artist4Hire.net

Charlie's World

SevenOaks Art

Web Design Studio

CoolText.com

Keep Your Site Updated!  You will lose traffic and visitors if you don't keep your site updated!  I've visited some sites that I can tell have never been updated, or they are updated only once or twice a year!  Make sure you keep your For Sale pages updated, even if you only put a dated message on it stating you have no stock available right now.  Adding a blog or a message board to you site will also give visitors the impression that your site is being used on a regular basis.

Word Press

Google Blogger

Check Your Email on a Regular Basis.  If email is the only way for visitors to your website to contact you - then make it a priority to check your email often - at least every other day if not more often!  Nothing indicates a 'dead site' more than a lack of response! 

If you know you are going to be gone on vacation or unavailable, you can usually put an automatic 'vacation response' through your email server - to let people know that you are unavailable and will contact them when you return, or you can put a short message on your home page, something like "I will be unable to respond to emails during November 2005, sorry for any inconvenience".

Test and check your website for compatibility in different browsers and resolutions.  I am so guilty of not doing this myself!  While your site might look great to you on your computer - it might 'fall apart' under someone else's browser or screen resolution!  Your tables and borders might appear funny and your text can be grossly misplaced under different resolutions.  You can download almost any browser by visiting the manufacturer's website.  Below are some links to information that may help you out (I'll have to visit these myself pretty soon  LOL):

Test Your Website

Website Checklist

Some browsers to download:

Firefox

Netscape

Internet Explorer

Selling Rabbits and Cavies Online.  This tip is not about design, but is about safety!  The world wide web is a rich frontier for fraud - don't become a victim when buying or selling online!  Some pointers:

-don't ever give your address or personal information online

-take steps to confirm the person you are dealing with online is a sincere buyer or seller

-do not accept payment for over the amount of your selling price ever - this can be a scam

-stay on top of current scams by visiting the sites below

-and lastly, if you suspect a scam - back out quickly and let others know of this person/company!

Internet Fraud Complaint Center

Scambusters

Internet Fraud

So you have a website, but no one can find it.......you need to work at getting your website recognized by the search engines so it will come up on the list of links internet surfers search for! There are several things you can do to help get your website noticed.  A cool website to learn more about search engines is;

 Search Engine Watch

-Submit your website to the Open Directory Project.  Once your website is listed in this database, most other search engines will eventually pick it up.

-Content:  Many overlook the fact that content is very important when it comes to most search engines - after all, most web surfers are looking for content or information, not flashy graphics and pictures, and the search engines know this. 

Make each of your pages content-rich with pertinent and correct information for your viewers!  This could be an easy task, especially for long-time or experienced breeders, who usually have a wealth of knowledge tucked under their cap already!  Publishing your own articles and information not only helps your site gain popularity, this information is usually sought out by new and inexperienced breeders, making your site helpful as well.

Design Tip: Writing Good Webpage Content

-Exchange links with other websites that contain similar information, such as other rabbit and cavy breeder's websites.  This is an easy and effective task that many new webmasters (and seasoned veterans) fail to do!  Most search engines count heavily on inbound and outbound links to find other websites and list them in their databases. 

The Basics of SEO

Don't link to "link-farms", large sites that are primarily just links about many subjects, and have no other reason for being a website - linking to these can often 'kill' your site in the eyes of search engines!  Also, try to list your website in rabbit and cavy breeder's directories.  A few places to list your rabbitry or caviary are below, there are many more also!:

The Rabbit & Cavy Directory

LaReau Lops & Cavies

BunnyRabbits.org

Rabbit Links from Island Gems

-Choose keywords and meta-tags carefully:  A keyword should be the main subject of each page in your website - and is what search engines will list your page under.  For instance, if you have a page about 'Breeding Cavies', then it would make sense to pick the phrase 'breeding cavies' as the keyword for the page- then someone searching for information on breeding cavies may find your site.  You will want to make sure that the keyword for each page is repeated several times throughout the page, including it within your content. 

Make sure you put 'meta-tags' into each page of your document - these are the tags up in the <head> of each page that provide search engines with info, but are not visible on your finished page.  They include the <title>, "description", and "keywords". 

Choose a keyword for each page that is specific, not general, about the page's content and you will do better in the search listings - for instance;  Suppose you are selling Abyssinian cavies on a page in your site, - choosing the keyword phrase "Abyssinian cavies for sale" will get you better search listings than "Cavies For Sale" if someone is looking for Abyssinian cavies!  Choosing effective keywords is a very important subject to learn about - below are some links to help you out:

Choosing Keywords

Choosing The Right Keywords

How To Use HTML Meta Tags

-One Page/One Subject:  After I published my first website, I wondered why it never got listed in searches, a dear friend of mine pointed out that I have a mish-mash of info on each page and my meta-tags listed several different keywords.  He said I needed to 'clean-up' each page to have each page be about ONE subject (keyword), not several!  For example, I used to have a page that listed "French Lops For Sale" and "Holland Lops For Sale"  - this page had content for both these subjects in it, plus my meta-tags reflected both these subjects - so I was really confusing the search engines, who were not sure which one was the main subject of the page!  After I broke this one page into two and made each page contain only ONE subject and ONE keyword, search engines began to pick both pages up!  

Please don't ask me for help - I am internet-challenged enough the way it is!  I do have some resources for you if your host cannot or will not help you with your website problem:

Rabbitry Websites

A Yahoo group devoted to discussion and help with rabbit and cavy breeder websites

Free Webmaster Help

Large resource of article, tutorials and more

Coding Forum

Web development and coding forum-must register to use

NetMechanic

Improve, promote, and build your site, help and tools to use, many are free

123Webmasters.com

Large resource of links to articles and tutorials

SitePro News Webmaster Resource Directory

Tons of resources categorized in an easy-to-find format

more links coming soon....

Do you know of a link to a helpful article or website that could be listed here?  Please email and let me know!