Web Site/Server Chhecklist

I've made a killer site - what else should be done?

[EBear]

Hi all.

Just got a Yahoo listing with only one minor kw dropped from my description, so it's looking like a good bank holiday weekend in Ireland. :)

I spent yesterday cleaning up the server and it struck me that it would be useful to have a checklist of all those extras you can forget about, apart from checking your pages. To show what I'm talking about here's my starting list (no particular order):

index.html (or whatever) in EVERY folder

to be doubly safe, turn off directory browsing

robots.txt

favicon.ico

error 404 page and server set for it

(in my case) SSI enabled and all relevant files 755 (I'm using XBitHack)

have you set up all the e-mail addresses you've referenced in mailtos and forms? (I've often forgotten that one!)

Anything else, anyone?

(Moderators, please move this to Webmaster General if more appropriate.)

[Crazy_Fool]

Hi EBear

it's always good to have a checklist. most people forget something or other!

how about .htaccess to ban certain undesirable bots? See this thread
[webmasterworld.com...]

have you placed images in a directory below web access level ? if your domain name is pointing to /web/, and you place images at /web/images/, then people could link directly to the images (bandwidth theft). you can prevent that by placing images in a directory at the same level as /web/ - you will need to link to the images using "../images/filename".

maybe do the same for databases and CSS files etc.

as an alternative, maybe a .htaccess in certain directories ? for example, if you have a directory of php include files, you could use a .htaccess file in that directory with the following content:
<Files *.php>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
</Files>
that should restrict access to those files so that only your main scripts can get at them.

have you left email addresses in plain text format? some people recommend you use "ram@{ ..." so that email address spiders can't pick it up as an email address. browsers should display it as a normal email address.

can't think of anything else offhand, but if i do, i'll add it

[txbakers]

you will need to link to the images using "../images/filename".

I was curious about this one and just tested it. I have a site that does link to the images in that fashion, and I was able to directly link to it from another site.

(Right click on image - properties - will give the complete URL of the image.)

I know there are some scripts available to detect direct linking, but I haven't seen one in code. Have you Crazy?

The email address is a good idea too. I've also seen the address broken into two strings to avoid the spiders.