| 25 Tips For A Successful
Website |
- The best designs are ones that are not noticed
and do not detract from the message of the site.
Most successful sites use a white background
and black text or a background color that doesn't
obscure any text.
- Many of the best sites on the Internet are
content laden - useful information which is
freely distributed. Include information relevant
to your audience (i.e. how-to articles, tips
and tricks, industry related news, etc.).
- Your site should be periodically updated and
maintained to retain repeat visitors. Also,
reduce the number of outside links to prevent
broken links.
- Surfers will generally wait no more than 20
seconds for a page to load and usually will
only remain for 20 to 60 seconds. Home pages
must load quickly.
- Know your intended target audience. Studies
show that visitors want fast loading pages and
useful information. The least important features
are "bleeding edge" technologies,
flashy animations and non-functional eye-candy
(unless that is what you are selling and what
your buyers are looking for).
- Never play music files the user has no control
over; Music tastes vary, and most surfers will
hit the back button rather than the volume.
This may count in your log as a hit but you
will have lost the surfer forever.
- Flashy animations and eye-candy usually are
only interesting once. You must rely on fast
loading useful content. Allow visitors to bypass
your Flash animations and splash screens. Slow
loading, flashy eye candy, animations and music
are usually not impressive to visitors unless
you are selling tools to create these effects.
If you must use them, make them optional. This
gives visitors the choice of using these options.
The surest way to lose visitors is to force
them to wait or listen to your musical preferences.
- Do not use frames unless you are an expert.
Frames cause more problems than they solve.
Be careful of using frames to frame other sites
pages or content within your site. It can be
construed as a copyright violation. Even linking
into some sites interior pages has been known
to get the linking site in trouble.
- Each page of the site must be consistent and
intuitive to navigate. More and more web surfers
are computer illiterate. Make your site easy
for anyone to understand and use. If you are
selling something, remove all obstacles to the
sales process to make it easy for customers
to want to do business with you (prices and
order forms must be easy to find and use).
- Your most qualified leads will most likely
come from non-web advertising and/or highly
targeted on-line advertising first, links from
related websites second and search engines will
be the third source of leads. You must take
advantage of all these marketing methods and
keep up with trends in the industry.
- Website traffic starts slowly at a new site,
builds, plateaus and then declines. To get the
best results from your website, you must market
constantly and update regularly to build traffic
and prevent it from declining. Encourage return
visitors.
- Customer service is imperative to your success.
Gather opt-in e-mail contacts with customer
permission whenever you can and follow-up.
- Your site must be designed with your visitor's
needs and capabilities in mind. Pages must be
fast loading and content must be useful and
relevant. Products must include full disclosure
of information and provide a quick, convenient
method of purchasing without requiring the visitor
to call or mail the company.
- Make links in your web site informative. Let
your visitors know what to expect and give them
a compelling reason to want to follow hyperlinks
on the site. List the download time and size
of large photographs or other files.
- Design the website to allow for future growth
without requiring major changes to the navigation
systems.
- Do not add visitor or customer contact information
(names, e-mail addresses, etc.) to your contact
lists without their express permission. Do not
grab visitor's e-mails from their browser since
this is commonly considered a violation of privacy.
- Non-web advertising using the domain name
may be the most important way to market a business.
This is usually the client's responsibility.
The tips and guidelines given here can be used
at the client's discretion. Each site is unique
and marketing strategies which work for one
site, may not be suitable for another.
- Encourage other sites to link to your website
without having to link to theirs when possible.
Making graphic and link information available
to other sites will encourage and facilitate
a partnership. Make it the client's responsibility
to cultivate linkage with other sites since
this is a time consuming task.
- No matter how good a website might be, it
must be visible, accessible and readily available.
You must get the people there. A site which
only has links in a search engine, will probably
fail to generate significant traffic.
- Remember that the Internet is a new interactive
communications medium. Businesses on the Internet
are still bound by the laws of supply and demand.
It still takes marketing strategies to be seen
and salesmanship to sell. Concentrate on customer
service and personal service. Use the Internet
as a tool to communicate rather than a tool
which isolates you from your customers.
- Use advertorials and endorsements to market
affiliate programs for other sites that you
personally endorse. Make sure these sites fit
within the context of your own website rather
than simply trying to cultivate a "banner
farm".
- Busy web pages are a common problem. Use photos
and graphics in moderation, as they may detract
from the subject matter of the page.
- Eliminate hype and concentrate on useful content
and information.
- Follow tried and true basic marketing techniques
(benefits, features, solving problems, using
the right words and images to invoke desired
feelings, calls to actions, etc.) Give your
audience what they are looking for and information
to help them.
- Think in terms of end results and simple goals.
Guide visitors to the desired goal. Regardless
of where a visitor first enters your site, you
can still redirect them to pages you want them
to view first, such as product information.
Then you will be able to lead them through the
ordering process while allowing immediate links
to other pages. For example, if someone enters
the site through your newsletter signup page,
will you be able to guide them to the main information
page, and ordering page? From any of these pages,
can they immediately navigate to your contact
information page?
|
|
|
|
