12
Tips To Great Websites
by Richard Hill
Why do some sites succeed while the vast majority
of others fail? More and more website owners are asking themselves
these questions. The answers are often more obvious than you may think.
Below are 12 tips for better, more successful web sites.
1. Location, Location, Location The old real
estate saying applies to websites as well, but Internet location is
really the website name. You must have a name that is easily remembered
and that reinforces your business.
If you can use your actual business name, that's
great. But if not, then choose one that will bring surfers to your site
- your product. BestWidgets.com says it all, but JonesBrothers.biz
doesn't help at all for a small business.
2. Focus What are you selling? Concentrate on that
one thing (or group of things). Unrelated products can confuse and
irritate your viewer. If you offer many products, dedicate a page for
each one. Up-selling great, but don't dedicate so much to it that the
customer feels caught in a bait and switch.
Make mention of other products but do so subtly.
Remember, too, that domain names are cheap to get and to host, so
consider having a different website for each product or service
grouping.
3. Load Fast You only have between 10 and 30
seconds to capture your potential customer's attention. Make your site
load fast, minimizing graphics to those really needed, keeping the
actual page size rather small. Stay away from glitzy animations and
sounds. That fancy flash movie may be really cool, but not so after you
have seen it a dozen times!
You can make your secondary pages a bit longer
once you have the prospect on your site. Don't forget to test your
pages at different connection speeds. Your cable modem may blaze, but
what happens on a 56k modem on dialup? You may be surprised. Also make
sure that all your cool stuff works on all current browsers. FrontPage
and DreamWeaver both let you test this, and if you are serious about
your business site, you need one of them, or a good web designer.
4. Target Your Audience Who are you selling to? It
is critical that your site reflect the desires of your potential
customers. Are you trying to sell to teenagers between 14 and 17? If
so, the site must be designed for what they expect to see. Is your
product aimed mostly at home-based businesses? Then you can afford to
emphasize different products or services on different pages. The key
here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.
Don't try to be all things to all people.
5. Credibility Is Crucial Your contact info should
include an email address, mailing address, phone number and a fax
number, if applicable. Remember, too, that a PO Box is an acceptable
address if you are working from home. If you are unwilling to provide
this information to your customers, how can they trust (or buy from)
you?
6. Privacy A clear privacy statement is "must
have". Every commercial web site should have a privacy statement posted
on line. Do not think that because you are small, you don't need to do
this, and all the other items. It matters. Provide an easy-to-see link
to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from
any location that you are asking your visitors for personal
information.
7. Guarantee Everything Offer an ironclad, no
exceptions, money back guarantee. This also establishes credibility but
it is important enough to stand alone. If the customer sees that your
are willing to assume all of the risk, they will immediately be more
inclined to trust you. If you are providing a downloadable product and
someone asks for a refund, don't get hung up on their still having the
product. Just ask them to delete it and then you forget about it. The
last thing you want to do is to get into an argument with a customer.
8. Payment If you don't currently take credit
cards, start doing so immediately. You can either set up a merchant
account or use a service like PayPal or ClickBank. Take checks on line
through PayPal. Provide an address for those who prefer to pay by check
or money order, but make it clear that you do not accept cash. Say that
you do, and someone is sure to claim they sent you money and got no
product.
Make sure the payment method is easy to access and
use. Do not ask for any more information than is necessary to complete
the transaction. If you don't need the info, don't ask for it.
Remember, too, that if you are keeping customer credit card info
online, you had better have a very good firewall and anti-spam
software. There is a major liability potential here. That is why
outside services like PayPal are so popular. The keep the card info and
you never see even it.
9. Easy Site Navigation Make site navigation easy
and intuitive. While it may be artistic to make your index page all
black and hide the link to continue, will that generate business? If
your customer can not navigate your site to find what they want, they
will go elsewhere. Limit the choices and direct your customers through
a sales process.
10. Design Consistency Make sure the site is
consistent through out your site. New pages should look consistent with
old pages. If you want to change the design of a new page, consider a
total site redesign. Nothing is more disturbing to a customer than
feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and
themes constant throughout the site.
11. Content is King Does your website get the
message across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Is the site
user-friendly? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process?
Have a few friends or colleagues review, critique and edit your copy to
insure it is delivering the intended message. But first, make sure they
are good spellers! Always double check your spelling and grammar.
12. Be Search Engine Friendly About 85% of all web
users find what they are looking for via the top search engines. Your
web pages must be easy for the search engine spiders to find and
navigate. Focus on your keywords and keyword density within your page,
but don't try to write just for the search engines. Utilize the meta
tags keywords, description and title. Use your keywords when naming
your pages and within the body of the page. Implementing the twelve
steps above probably will not change your site into a LandsEnd.com
overnight. You should see a marked improvement in the site's traffic
and sales when you implement these suggestions. It may take a few weeks
to a few months, but you will see success. And success breeds success.
Richard Hill may be contacted at http://www.US-Email-Service.com
or hillrf@cox.net
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