Five brave, brave souls volunteered to have their websites reviewed by me based on what I consider a good webcomic set up.  Here is the first of those reviews, for Varethane, the creator of Chirault (a comic which I read and love, BTW).

Before I begin, a note: I don’t ever ever review in the form of “this sucks, change it to suit me, puny human!” I prefer to use reviews as a teaching tool, and I definitely try to write reviews such that no matter who or what is being reviewed, everybody wins/learns. Also, all of the links inside this article do not lead to Varethane’s site, but instead to articles that expand upon the point I’m making.

Let’s get started! *cracks knuckles*

The first thing I’m going to touch on is pretty obvious: the comic is not on the front page. Now, this is not necessarily always a bad thing, as I wrote at length about in a previous post.  Things to consider when having your comic off the front page are:

• do you have multiple comics updating? If yes, and your home page lists the updates of all the comics, having the comic off the front page may be acceptable. Your one site displays updates to all your work this way, but if you only have one project going…why isn’t it the first thing people see? (no, really, I’m asking you all this question).

• does your comic page format change? If your pages constantly change size or format (example, widescreen vs. vertical formats), having a comic page in a good-looking template is nearly impossible, and you may want it on it’s own, simplified page.

• do you have this format because your home page is of a totally different design, with different content than your comic archive pages?  If yes, perhaps you want, for example, a title image,  site news and ads on your home page, but you want comic news, vote images, and a chat-box on your archive pages.

Where I’m going with this is that I would highly recommend YOU specifically putting you in particular having comics on the front page.  The minimalistic approach you’ve taken (content-wise) defeats the purpose of having a front page. If it’s not highly dynamic, or if there’s not some sort of interaction (in the form of commenting, chat-boxes, etc that doesn’t take a click/link to find), people will start bookmarking your “most recent comic” page instead.  When you have a front page like this, the goal is to keep people coming back TO the home page, not visiting the home page once or twice, realizing there’s little in the way of new content, and then bookmarking the most recent comic page. If everyone bypasses the front page, what is the point of having it?

Also, what is with having the tag-box on a separate page? Don’t make it harder for people to communicate with you than it has to be! And we all know, for some reason, that ONE EXTRA CLICK is superhard for 99% of internet users.

So, add more to the front page, or put your comics there instead.  Before I move on, I also wanted to touch on your choice of front page image. Now, I’m a total fan of your style. I think it rawks, and I have no idea how you get such great lines, but I don’t like your choice of a front page image. It’s very static.  Instead of seeing *BAM* CHIRAULT THE WEBCOMIC SEE MY AWESOMNESS, my eye is confused on where you want me to go! I’m stuck at the top left because of the gold coloring and complicated design.  Just like in any artistic piece, focus is important (and it should be on the content, not on the surrounding art). Webdesign needs to take this into account. I would suggest a stronger title image, either strong letters specifically, or Kiran not kinda squiting and grumbling at the news. Or perhaps a more organic incorporation of the content into the background.  The text gets a little lost, especially at smaller resolutions.

NEXT!

BIG POINTS on the following:

• update schedule is prominent
• direct links to the latest page, first page, and archives, a MUST for having the comic off the front page
• prominent “contact” link
• An updated and dated news area (a must for a webcomic site, regardless of the content)

SITE NAVIGATION: I’m not seeing a “links,” “cast,” or “about” link, which are webcomic website must-have’s.  Since I don’t see those, I’m going to click the mysterious “other” link to see what I find. Mysterious links are NOT good to have. Don’t make people guess about the content of a page before they click. Always title a page exactly what it is.  If you don’t want to upkeep multiple pages, then organize all the content of your “other” page with link anchors, and just add the extra links into your nav menu.

Okay, you have banners on your “other” page, so that’s good! For everyone reading, how are people supposed to link you if you don’t provide banners? You also have a gallery section here, though I would of course recommend you add a “gallery” or “art” link to your site navigation too! Don’t make people hunt for your banners though, Varethane! So get up a specifically-titled “links” or “banners” section.

I’m looking for a “cast” section still, and…oh! There it is! Hidden between art sections! Get this link on the FRONT page.  Who your characters are is almost just as important as your archive page.  This is a highly visited page on any long-form comic, so give it the attention it needs!

Provide an “about” page with information about your comic (such as a synopsis or pitch) and if desired, about yourself. All of this helps improve your site’s SEO, which I think it really needs. Your site has extremely little text, so I would imagine you get very little in the way of search referrals unless someone is searching specifically for your comic’s title.  Webcomickers in general don’t think much of search referrals (with the logic being “they’d search for my comic if they knew it, and no one will read it if they stumble across it while searching for something else”), but they are important!  The sites that really make it big get the majority of their visits from search referrals, NOT direct referrals (bookmarks, etc).

Your archive page links each page, and it’s ordered by chapter and page number. Nice!

COMIC ARCHIVES: You have full comic navigation (first/prev/next/last), YES! What you DON’T have is navigation above AND below the comic. A lot of times comic creators do not realize the importance of having this navigation for the READERS. It’s not for you, it’s for them, especially when your pages require a scroll in 1024×768 resolution (which has replaced 800×600 resolution as the default). Don’t ever make your readers scroll more than they have to, especially if they’re looking for a specific page. It’s not all too important for casual readers who check only the latest page, but what if I want to go back 10 or so pages to see what happened? Are you going to make me scroll beneath your comic every time? You’ll make my fingers tired, and just annoy the crap outta me.

You also don’t have links to your “archive” page or your “cast” page from your comic archive page. Remember, make it as easy as possible for your audience! Anticpate their needs, and provide it for them. Now, what if I’m starting out on your latest page, and I don’t recognize a character? I click the home page, looking for a cast or characters section, and I don’t find it. That’s one click. So then I try the “others” page. 2 clicks. I scroll down, and FINALLY find “characters” page link in the Miscellania section. That’s 3 clicks and scroll total. Ack! People are going to just give up before they find what they’re looking for!

CMS CHOICE: You are hand-coding your archives, aren’t you? D: No wonder your archive pages are so bare! If you don’t want to deal with WordPress, go for something like SomeryC, which requires no skill with PHP, and nothing more difficult than creating a mySQL database. If you don’t have access to a hosting admin panel, or the ability to get someone to make a database for you (by making, I mean “naming” and “setting a password,” no pain involved!) try i-strip. You may actually want to try i-strip first since it doesn’t require a database.

Based on how your webpage looks and your page source code, you obviously know what you’re doing or have someone who helps you out. Take advantage of this web knowledge. I’ve said it so many times here, but I’m going to say it again: webcomics are half comic, half web! Don’t sell you, your comic, or your audience short on the “web” part! A CMS will also make you entire site easier to manage.

Since I think you’re not using a CMS, I’m now actually wondering if your site format (webcomic off the front page, barebones nature) is a result of not having any automation. It’s somewhat easier to create the html files for blank comic archive pages rather than continually change the front page links.  This only reinforces your need FOR a CMS though.

I’m going to sum everything up now:

• Add “cast/characters,” “about”  and “links/banners” link in your site navigation. For you, I might also recommend a “world setting” section. I would also recommend taking out links for your DA and contact, and putting those inside your “about” section. Your chat-box needs to be somewhere that doesn’t need a click.
• Add more content, period!  Your site is barebones. If you can keep the streamlined nature of what you already have while adding more content for people to explore, it will be perfect! A lot of people offer either too much, or nothing at all. More text content in particular will increase your SEO. Webcomics are about more than just the comic–they’re about the site too!
• You ought to either have your comic on the front page (which would recommend considering your small page size and distinctive art style that you ought to be showing off more) or improve your front page design to make people want to keep coming back to it.
• Find a CMS you like!
• Add full comic navigation above and below the comic pages.

Phew, that’s it from me! Four more reviews to follow. At this time, I am NOT accepting more sites to review until I can make sure I can handle what I have. I’ll post here when I can do more.