Webcredible normally charges £170 for the handbook, aimed at designers, developers, programmers and marketing and IT professionals, but says it is "evoking the festive spirit" by giving away its proprietary information for the limited period.
The handbook also explains how to make users trust your website – web credibility – and how to optimise your website for search engines.
Among the tips in the 128 best-practice checkpoints:
Usability
- Avoid links pointing to the current page (recursive links)
- Have no more than nine items in a navigation group
- Present email links as email addresses (not as names)
Accessibility
- Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout, not tables
- Use descriptive link text
- Forms should not time-out or auto-refresh
Web credibility
- Explain clearly on your homepage what your organisation does
- Prices must be easy to find
- List clients with case studies
Search engine optimisation
- Ensure that the first 25 words on each page contain valuable content, not navigation menu items
- Register with Yahoo!
- Encourage inbound links
