Top Ten Hints for a Good Numismatic Web site

The most useful feature of the Internet over printed pages are internal and external reference links to exploit the added dimension of web-pages. I list below the most important considerations when designing a Numismatic Web site. See also advice.

(10) Select and register a good short Domain name.
Easy to remember and spell, with six or less characters is considered a good investment. It now costs under US$8.50 per year, This prevents many broken links if you need to change hosting ISP, to minimize the cost of hosting.
(9) Use default files.
Shorter URL not requiring a file name and hides in a simple way the raw contents of a directory.
You can have work in progress and hidden files you don't want to publish publicly but still have access to view on the Internet.
Also use subdirectories with Index pages to link related web-pages of similar type.
Gives you many shorter URL's that don't need explicit filenames and keeps your web-site organized without too many files in the same directory.
(8) Include a Search Form to keyword find pages within website.
Use Google with Site: option, but Google Index is update only about monthly. Spell-check page to ensure the correct words are indexed. Other Services can be obtained for Free, to reindex a small web site anytime by a manual request.
(7) Coin images should have resolution that you will see under typical magnification of say a 10x lupe.
i.e. 300-600 dpi scans or digital photography saved jpeg format at say 50% quality compression, to keep image files small without significant loss of image quality.
Scanned images of about 320 pixels square, displayed at 240 pixels square is about optimum.
i.e. 300 dpi for coins larger than about 17 mm and 600 dpi for smaller coins.
Keep total size on page including images small. Say under 100kb which will take 15 Sec to load on a 56K modem. You may have a fast link to the Internet, but a large fraction of your readers particularly World Wide have a slow Internet connection.
(6) Give detailed description of obverse and reverse and edge of coin.
This direct reader to detail which might be otherwise overlooked.
Provide any interesting background known about each coin, token or medal.
Translate any non-english text, acronyms etc.
(5) Give as much physical information about the coin. metal composition, size, thickness, weight, die-axis, mintage.
These details are not obvious to reader with only an image on page. Images size on screen depending on viewers computer screen.
(4) Acknowledgment to those who provide information on page.
This encourages others to send in useful information, answer queries.
If you link to an interesting story or image online. Keep a copy of it. It is an unfortunate fact about the web that many interesting stories and images move or go offline, leading to a broken link. If you have saved a copy you might be able to post the backup.
(3) KISS (Keep it Simple Stu...). Use standard HTML, no Java Script, Frames, popups, particularly non-universal plug-ins like Flash, Java etc.
Web page which will load faster to a text based browser will be preferably picked up by automated search robots like Google.
HTML can be written by a text editor, no different to what you use to send E-mail. Formating commands are minimum and simple. Most commercial web editors make HTML files which are typically ten times larger and impossible to edit without reusing that same editor. They may favour display on a particular browser.
(2) Single Topic. One Coin one Page with a descriptive title line
Simplifies cross links and each page loads faster.
Higher score in search output listing - Words in Title line get higher weight
Does not get found with a cross link of words from two different topics.
(1) Links to other similar coins on your web own page and external sites both numismatic and not. The important difference between a printed page and web page is the added dimension of the ability to put direct links to reference.
Check both internal and external links. Internal links must be checked after any type of file reorganization.
Unix has a program called linklint.

Read also top-ten reasons for creating a good numismatic website.

Please E-mail me any comments.

This web page is posted on LakdivaCoins a web site for numismatic information on Coins and Tokens that circulated in Lanka.