Once you have people visiting your website, the trick for many businesses will be to keep them interested and hopefully coming back to your website.
Much has been written on how to construct a good website; sadly much of it seems to have been ignored.
The first thing to keep in mind with any website is DON’T CONFUSE YOUR VISITORS.
By this I mean, make sure that anyone who is visiting your website understands quickly and concisely why they are there.
Your site must clearly convey a simple message; are you SELLING, BUYING or INFORMING your visitors.
If the site was developed to sell product, it is fine to describe what the product or service is, but the emphasis should be that it is a “sales site.” If your site is an online brochure for your company and you are providing a variety of offerings, make sure you are crystal clear so your visitors know exactly where things on your site are located.
- Grab your visitor’s attention right away. Your site needs to open with a simple, clearly defined message that will make the visitor want to look further at the site.
- Make navigation easy and intuitive. As a general rule, when someone is visiting a website they want to have the flexibility of moving from page to page throughout the website. It can be very annoying to navigate a website by always returning to the home or main page. Even worse is navigating through a website and finding that the only option you have is the “Back button”. When this happen many people simply “click” away to another website. Poor navigational links on a website are signs of poor development quality and or poor planning. In the mind of the visitor, a fault on a website, like poor navigation, reflects on the quality of your business. Make sure all your website pages contain all the same internal links.
- Avoid long and wordy paragraphs. Unless you are providing some technical information. Even then it is probably a good idea to provide this information using a downloadable format such as PDF files. It is best to use graphics or pictures to help tell your story. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is especially true on websites.
- Speed is of the essence. Especially when it comes to browsing websites. One of the best ways to drive visitors away from your site is by having a site that is painfully slow. Some of the things that can slow a website down are:
- Graphic images that are improperly applied
- Faulty scripts and programs improperly applied
- Web-host operating with slow equipment
- Animation or sound files improperly applied
When you work hard to attract visitors, the last thing you want to be doing is spoiling their experience with a slow website. Build your site according to the latest modem speed and computer viewing statistics. Finding this information on the Internet will require some research, but it is invaluable in making a better website. Keep in mind that when building your site, what looks good on one computer will be irritatingly slow to download on another.
Make your website easy and inviting to navigate. Always seek to improve!
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