As a person builds more and more pages in their efforts to advance an affiliate business, it becomes more and more likely that sooner-or-later it is going to be necessary to create test pages.
There are no existing rules or standards for test pages, nor, due to the variable nature of what these pages are intended for, does it seem reasonable to attempt to regulate how they are used.
However, it does seem useful to establish a standard way of identifiying experimental or test web pages which would be used MOST of the time when it does not impede the objectives of the testing which is being done.
If this were done, users would know, in advance, that viewing these special pages might produce results which are unusual, unpredictable and possibly undersirable. Search engines and directories could either ignore these pages or place them in a special category.
Therefore, we suggest that wherever possible you attempt to apply the following guidelines wherever it is reasonable to do so.
TEST PAGE GUIDELINES
REQUIRED ELEMENTS
- Obviously, every test page will have something in it which is being tested.
- Every test page will use a naming scheme in which the first three characters of the file name are "zXX", where "z" is the lower-case of the last letter in the english alphabet, and "XX" are digits from 0 to 9.
A page can be named using only these three characters prior to the file extension of .html, .htm, .asp, or whatever else is used, or the three characters could be used as a Pre-fix, so that the ulitmate name of the file being tested could be identified from the outset. For example "z00index.html" would be the first in a series of test pages which would ultimately be called "index.html".
OPTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
- The page is password protected.
Use the password "zzz" on test pages which are not of a private nature, simply to draw attention to a user that in entering the password they are confiruming their recognition that the page is not a "normal" page. If the page needs to be private, the password can be changed to something else. - The test would have a Name which would be included in the META TITLE field. The name should begin with the word "TEST".
- The test would be described in the META DESCRIPTION field, also beginning with the word "TEST".
- The test would include instructions for users where appropriate. These instruction could be visible or hidden from display in the published page by placing it in a META INSTRUCTIONS field.
- The test would include the results of the test, or a link to where these might be obtained.
- The test would have a contact which might be a URL or Mailto link where a user might ask questions, make comments or otherwise communicate with a person responsible for the test.
- Robot Indexing and Robot Following instructions to guide robots to tester's preferences.
