Looooong pages were the order of the day, and you often had to scroll down a screen or two just to see what the heck was on a page. Columns make pages easier to read, and allow much more information to be presented at one time, so they are used on most sites nowadays. Although tables are not a perfect way to create columns, they are the only way at the moment, so take your time and learn them thoroughly. HTML In Action is one of several HTML books that include a thorough tutorial on tables. Hit Counters Monitoring and analysing your Web site's traffic is important.
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It's another piece of visual clutter that serves no purpose, and is considered one of the classic signs of a tyro's site. It's okay to mention upcoming site features in body copy, but not to have a link to a section that doesn't yet exist. Endorsements of Particular Browsers Professional Web sites are designed to look acceptable in all major browsers. It is not possible to ensure that a page looks exactly the way you want it to, so you have no choice but to split the difference. Even if a visitor has the same browser as you do, they may have a different screen resolution, different browser preferences, or simply a different window size.