1. The Web Guide's bookmarks are available as a tag cloud
(NEWS/NEWS FROM FAO)

...gs (similar to keywords). A "tag cloud" is a visual map that shows at a glance which tags are most important. Tags that are large, bold and darker are very popular, tags that appear s...

2. Web Usability Matters
(NEWS/GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS)

...r from them? Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design? There are many other important quality characteristics, such as utility (the design's functionality). Does it co...

3. 2.8 Social Media Policy
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

...mer. As FAO is strengthening its role as a Knowledge Management Organization, it is important that staff actively participate in the process of knowledge sharing. You are ther...

4. 9.4 Evaluation of Web sites
(WEBGUIDE/MAINTENANCE)

Guideline  The evaluation of the use of a Web site is an important and often overlooked step. It helps to identify areas of the Web site to adapt to the intended users. A number of methods

5. 8.2 Promotion
(WEBGUIDE/LAUNCH)

... Web site, now you have to publicize it! Promoting your site with partners and external audiences is just as important as promoting it within FAO. Search engines count the number of times a page is li...

6. 8.1a Quality assurance before release
(WEBGUIDE/LAUNCH)

... your Web site and re-read the text. If necessary, edit and apply the changes to the translated pages. It is important to use official translations of key terms in FAOTERM and to have similar spelling...

7. 6.11 Domains, URLs and aliases
(WEBGUIDE/CONSTRUCTION)

...are easy to copy and paste and so that they may easily be typed into a browser, used on brochures etc. It is important to avoid empty spaces in file names, otherwise they will display as "%20%&qu...

8. 6.9 Printable pages
(WEBGUIDE/CONSTRUCTION)

... should be noted that the print-friendly version does not have to be an exact copy of the Web site. The most important element is that the text and content is readable. This can be done by either adju...

9. 5.3c Web site design usability principles
(WEBGUIDE/DESIGN)

...hest contrast and is the easiest to read. Finding text colours that contrast strongly with the background is important. If you deviate from this, make sure you have a good reason. The VisiBone ...

10. 5.3a Design visual identity
(WEBGUIDE/DESIGN)

...one likes is perhaps one of the most challenging parts of building a Web site. For this reason, it is important to create one or several design mock-ups of the home page and at least one sub-pa...

11. 5.2c Define metadata and search requirements
(WEBGUIDE/DESIGN)

...eful way to: validate the content classification; help you review the labelling; and most important of all - lead you smoothly into identifying the descriptive metadata of the main ...

12. 5.2b Define navigation
(WEBGUIDE/DESIGN)

Guideline It is important that your site is easy to navigate. Consistency and predictability are the key. A user should be able to drill down for information and find their way back through t

13. 5.2a Identify Web pages and subject categories
(WEBGUIDE/DESIGN)

... of FAO Web sites include: Who we are; Frequently Asked Questions; and Contacts It is important to keep the titles of Web pages short, using easily understandable&nbsp...

14. 5.5 Define technical implementation
(WEBGUIDE/DESIGN)

...d in some cases, decisions are made implicitly. Documenting final agreements (what has been done and why) is important to communicate progress to the Web site sponsors (for review and clearance) and t...

15. 4.4d How to create or improve current metadata
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

...ch engines) and makes it difficult for people to find the information they are looking for. Therefore, it is important to keep your page's metadata updated. Follow these criteria to select ...

16. 4.4c How to embed basic metadata in the HTML *head* section
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

..." scheme="SCHEME NAME" content="ELEMENT VALUE" /> There are several other important tags that can be used to create machine-readable information about your Web page,...

17. 4.4b Why embed metadata in Web pages?
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

...here are many reasons to include metadata, beyond what a search engine may make use of: perhaps most importantly, metadata can vastly enhance indexing within an internal content management sys...

18. 4.3d How to optimize content for search engines
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

...1, H2, H3 Search engines sometimes consider words that appear in the page headline and subheadings to be important to the page, so make sure your desired keywords and phrases appear in one or two ...

19. 4.3c Organizing your text on the page
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

...m Having too many live links inside text is confusing and annoying. Create a resource box where links to important and related Web sites, documents and other multimedia can be listed. This is also...

20. 4.3a Writing a page of text
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

...ll them by wading through paragraphs of text. Question Our content is very important, we fear that brevity might lead to lack of gravitas, we need lots of text to exp...

21. 4.3 Writing for the Web
(WEBGUIDE/CONTENT COLLECTION)

It is important to remember that a user's first impression of a Web site can be affected not only by the design and the way information is organized but also by the quality of the written conten

22. 3.4 Define your audience
(WEBGUIDE/PLANNING)

At the planning stage, it is important to collect specific information about the target users for your Web site. Defining your audience might require ad-hoc user research. If you do not have im

23. 3.3 Define the Web site subject scope
(WEBGUIDE/PLANNING)

... of a new or (to be) redesigned Web site, write a description of its subject area/scope. This step is important: to identify the content of the site (e.g. for development, selection and...

24. 3.2 What and (who) is the site for and what is it about?
(WEBGUIDE/PLANNING)

...losely meets the requirements of targeted users? Whom is the site for? At the planning stage, it is important to collect some specific information about the users for which the Web site is be...

25. 3. Planning
(WEBGUIDE/PLANNING)

...stage of a Web project where you lay the foundations of a successful Web site. Before planning begins, it is important to have a clear idea of the: project size; corporate-level requirement...

26. 2.3 Site clearance and accountability at FAO
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

...ted will not be difficult if you have followed the recommendations and advice contained in this Guide. It is important to remember that all FAO Web sites are held up against a Web checklist before the...

27. 1.1 FAO and the Internet: What is an FAO Web site?
(WEBGUIDE/INTRODUCTION)

...centralized offices). Even if the standard workflow is not followed for each publication, it is important to remember that a copy of each publication produced by FAO should be provided to...

28. 9.1a Maintaining quality
(WEBGUIDE/MAINTENANCE)

...of special software - discuss with KCT or KCE. Language coverage As new information is added, it is important to maintain consistency across all the languages in which the site is published. ...

29. 6.7a Guidelines for language encoding
(WEBGUIDE/CONSTRUCTION)

...ic, the character set is different for Windows (windows-1256) and Macintosh (ISO-8859-6). In addition, it is important to specify in the Web page that the text should be displayed from right to left: ...

30. 6.1b Versioning and archiving
(WEBGUIDE/CONSTRUCTION)

...ally (e.g. on your computer) and also on a CD-ROM or DVD. Do not use shared directories to archive important files! Theses drives may be cleaned regularly. ...

31. 6.1a File naming and organization conventions
(WEBGUIDE/CONSTRUCTION)

Policy Ensuring that your files are logically and comprehensively named is an important part of a successful Web site. FAO already has a policy on how Web files should be named. The WAICENT File n

32. 2.6c Designing for the user
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

...ormation you offer. Organize the information according to their objectives. Usability is particularly important for FAO Web sites because of the broad range of needs, skills and constraints of ...

33. 2.6b How to gather user information: user research
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

...lysis (more on surveys at UsabilityNet). Group brainstorming: the right mix of stakeholders is important to produce as many creative ideas as possible. Brainstorming can be used with sta...

34. 2.6a FAO Web sites: the user perspective
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

Guideline For a Web site to be successful and useful it is highly important to identify the target users and their requirements. Following are definitions, criteria and methods that will al

35. 2.4b The fao.org domain, subdomains and root directories
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

... in the Department responsible for the project's implementation (e.g. www.fao.org/forestry/...). It is important that the Web sites of Decentralized offices (Country Offices and/or regional/subr...

36. 2.4a Country names, flags and maps
(WEBGUIDE/WEB PUBLICATION BASICS)

Policy Country names, flags and maps are politically sensitive issues. For this reason, it is important that when placing this type of information on a Web site it is correct and in accordance wit