When planning a website or a blog, be it for own use or to trade for a client, there are a number of rules that must be met before placing them on the air. Although the creation of blogs is a very simple to implement, the reality is that often the bloggers are forgetting details that are essential to the vitality and usability of these projects.

For those like me, are constantly planning new ideas and new forms of return, I thought it would be interesting to make a series of aspects that are essential and inherent to any kind of release, be it a website, a blog, a forum, or something.

This article takes into account all essential steps to good usability of your next blog, or your current blog, and should always take them into consideration as you evolve and stirring in your project. Taking all these findings validated 14 is the halfway stage for the success of your project!

1. Favicon
The favicon is the icon that appears in the navigation bar of your browser, usually indicative of the website or blog that we are viewing at that time.It is also the icon that is registered in the favorites bar, where a site is saved. Some browsers make the automatic capture of the favicon if it is positioned at the root of your server and format. Ico corresponding.However, it is advisable to use a few lines of code in the header of your blog, so that your favicon is not attached to your address. Take:

<link rel=”icon” type=”image/x-icon” href=”/favicon.ico” /> <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="/favicon.ico" />

<link rel=”apple-touch-icon” href=”/favicon.png” /> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/favicon.png" />

The first is to pull the typical favicon of a website or blog, to be placed in the root of your server (usually inside the public_html folder), and the second example is the code to pull an icon compatible with iPhone or iPod.

2. SECURITIES AND META DATA
The title of your page is one of the most important parts of SEO for your blog. In addition to tell search engines what is on that same page, say to their readers what the content and what is the area that your blog is. Consider where the title change from page to page, under the rules of optimization for search engines.

<title> 14 essential checks to do before launching your next blog! | Management of Blogs and Websites </ title>

The meta description and meta tags no longer have the weight they had in terms of SEO and the eyes of search engines specifically, but it is advisable to use. Consider always using a description for each of your pages.Besides being beneficial in terms of SEO, is the description that Google puts the results of their research. For those who use Wordpress, the plugin All in One SEO does this automatically in an efficient manner.

<meta name = "description" content = "Find the checks that should always hold before launching their blogs on the Internet. Little tips and tricks that will immediately improve the usability of your blog "/>

3. CROSS-CHECKING BROWSER
When you program a template for a website or blog, this is usually done in the browser that usually works.There are many developers who develop templates and websites in Firefox, and when you think your project was perfect, open it in Internet Explorer and all the site is destroyed.It is therefore vital, test your blog in multiple browsers as the main building and will, before the launch to the public.
Currently the most used browsers on the market are: Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox 3, Safari 3, Chrome, Opera and the iPhone.

4. PROOF OF READING
One of the essential things in the pre-launch of a website or blog is proof reading. Before launching its new blog, consider reading the entire contents, all buttons, all the details written. There is always something that fails, it is important to check everything before launch.
Look also remove the existing line breaks, reduce the unnecessary gaps in their texts, among other things. Keep in mind also the boxes to call attention to and everything else ...

5. LINKS
Another very important thing and that usually many webmasters forget to check, are the links on the blog. Never assume that all links are correct. Sometimes the misuse of quotation marks or the http can lead to broken links and visitors from unnecessary losses.

Consider also verify that the logo on your blog linka automatically to the homepage. Usually a visitor is not the standard look for button "home" when you want to return to the first page. The first impetus is always to press the logo for this purpose.

Keep in mind also the visibility of your links.The color you use for links, the color you use for links already visited, among other very important details.To help you in this task, you can also take into account the tool W3C Link Checker.

6. THE FUNCTIONALITY TEST
After checking all the 5 steps above, it is time to test the functionality of your new blog. Consider calling a friend for close to you, and ask him to navigate in your new project as if you were interested in visiting it and exploit it.Consider the way he moves in his new blog, which places he visits, what difficulties he encounters.Look also test the plug contacts, and all forms present in your blog.If you need help, use Silverback.

7. TESTING IN JAVASCRIPT
Keep in mind that your blog will operate correctly with Javascript turned off in your browser. There are many users who disable Javascript and maneuver of security, it is important to test your project with this feature turned off.To the surprise of many developers, sometimes when you turn off Javascript the project so far was perfect, no longer the be ...

8. VALIDATION
Tests of the W3C validation of code are now one of the best business cards to readers and visitors to a website or blog. It is not the end of the world if your blog contains some errors, but it is important that you look resolve them as soon as possible. Besides improving the usability of your blog, will also make it more friendly for search engines and crawlers that make the indexing of its content.Sometimes the lack of small attributes as "title" or "alt" can lead to small errors that are solved in minutes. Take your test in W3C Validator.

9. LINK TO RSS FEED
When you have a blog of dynamic content, it is extremely important to have an RSS feed that your readers and visitors can subscribe.The best way to provide this link to subscribe is offering it along with your blog address in the navigation bar of your browser.To do this, simply use the following code:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Site or title RSS" href="link-do-feed" />

Consider also always put a button to subscribe in your home, and preferably visible. It is recommended that this button is included in the header or sidebar of your blog, so that is always present as you browse the site.

10. STATISTICS
Integrating a software of statistics in your blog is very important to measure effectively the growth of your blog, how your visitors are behaving, and other information essential to the analysis of your blog. Consider using Google Analytics.

11. SITEMAP
Create a sitemap.xml for your website or blog, is in today's common practice and extremely important in terms of indexing the content.If perchance not use a dynamic website, consider using the XML-Sitemaps to create a file with the map of your website.Then place it in the root of your server so that search engines can make a more efficient indexing of its content.

If perchance using Wordpress, install the plugin Google XML Sitemaps, establishing him a dynamic sitemap automatically.This sitemap will be updated dynamically and when you add new content to your blog.After that, consider creating an account on Google Webmaster Tools, where to add your new blog and index your sitemap, accelerating the process of indexing the site.

12. DEFENSE DESIGN
One of the greatest examples of defensive design, is the creation and use of 404 Error pages. These pages represent addresses that are broken and / or have been modified, so it is important to provide quality information to not lose that visitor.

13. Optimizing

There are several ways to maximize the most of your blog, using the reduction of HTTP requests, putting its attributes in images, reducing the weight of these images, optimizing your CSS code and making everything as simple and efficient as possible. Consider doing the test from WebAnalizer and check what goes wrong with your blog, and how you can accelerate it.

14. BACKUP
If your website or blog makes use of a database, it is essential to take into account the protection of your information. If perchance using Wordpress, consider installing the plugin Wordpress Database Backup, which makes it back up automatically, then send them by email.
If you wish, you may ask your company to create a room that you plan to backup a server part. The cost of such service is minimal when compared to the damage possible.

Other things that checks should I do?
Consider leaving your comment with your experience and what it considers to be the most important to check before launching a new project on the internet!