The
Secrets to Building a Successful Website
If you're doing business on the Internet, one of the most
important aspects of your success is your web site. If your
web site doesn't look professional, no matter what product
you're offering your chances of success are minimal.
Before you begin, if you've never designed a web page, it
would be wise to become familiar with HTML. (Hypertext Markup
Language.) A great place to start is NCSA Beginner's Guide
to HTML:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
15 Tips for designing a successful web site:
(1) The main page of your web site should load in 8 seconds
or less with a 56K modem.
According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester Research
and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3
billion in revenue each year due to customers click- away
caused by slow loading sites. If a page takes too long to
load, your potential customer will not wait. Ultimately costing
you business.
(2) Make sure you include proper META tags in the HTML of
each page of your web site. META tags are HTML code that enable
the search engines to determine what keywords are relevant
to a specific site. About 80 percent of all web site traffic
originates from the eight major search engines. It would be
a good idea to make sure you've done your homework and fully
understand how to optimize your web pages prior to designing
your site. This will save you a lot of headaches in the long
run. For further information on META tags read the tutorial
entitled, "Building Your Site."
http://www.web-source.net/building.htm
(3) Be cautious when selecting your background and text colors.
Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the
attention away from the text. Always be consistent with your
background theme on each page of your site. Your site should
be nicely organized and uniform throughout. Keep in mind,
colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors
as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you
to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue
and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown
and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb would
be to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying
to achieve.
(4) Use minimal animated graphics. These can be very distracting
and can cause your page to look unprofessional. In addition,
animated graphics cause your page to load more slowly. Fancy
graphics won't make the sale.
(5) Your main page should specifically let your visitors know
exactly what you're offering. How many times have you visited
a site and never figured out exactly what they were selling?
If your potential customer can't find your product or service,
they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for it.
They'll go on to the next site and probably never return.
They're visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want
something your site offers. Whether it is information, a product
or service.
(6) Try to avoid placing banner exchange banners at the top
of your page. These can instantly take your customers or even
be indexed by search engine robots. Limit the number of banners
on your site to no more than two per page. One is ideal.
(7) Always, include your contact information on each page
of your site and try to reply to all comments and suggestions
within 48 hours. This will help promote good business relationships.
Your business relationships are the key to your success.
(8) ALWAYS check and double-check your site for spelling errors
and make sure your images and links are all working properly.
If you have several errors, this will make your site appear
to be unprofessional. If you are designing your site using
an HTML editor, use spell check. Proper grammar is also very
important. If you've been out of school for a while it's probably
a good idea to refresh your memory. Visit any of the following
sites for a crash course in writing and grammar.
Guide to Grammar and Writing
http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/original.htm
A Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
http://www.grammarbook.com/
Exploring English
http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/
Simpler Words And Phrases
http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/arts/tpl5.htm
(9) Design your site to be easily navigated. Place your navigation
links together at the top, bottom, left or right side of the
page. Use tables to neatly align your links. If you are planning
on using graphic buttons to navigate your site, keep in mind
that with each graphic you add to your page, it will take
that much longer for your page to load. If you only have a
handful of navigational links, using graphic buttons will
be fine. If you have over six links, it would be wise to simply
use text links to keep your load time down.
(10) If you must use frames, use them sparingly. Frames, if
not properly used, can make your site look unprofessional.
Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side
to view your content. This can be very irritating and cause
your visitors to leave. If you must use frames, offer your
visitors a choice. Frames verses No Frames.
(11) Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from
your main page to any other page on your site down to four.
Keep in mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages
other than your main. Always have good navigational links
on every page and place your company logo on each page.
(12) If you must use Java on your site, use it sparingly.
Offer your visitors a choice. Java verses No Java. Java can
be slow and has a tendency to crash browsers. Try to avoid
using those pop up boxes asking for your visitor's name, etc.
Those pop up messages are very unprofessional and can be very
frustrating to your visitors when they're trying to view your
site.
(13) Do not set sound to "autoplay" when someone visits your
site. This can be very distracting.
(14) All web browsers are not created equally. View your site
through different browsers and screen resolutions so you will
see how your visitors will view your site. Visit:
Site Inspector - Check your web pages for HTML validity and
browser compatibility.
http://www.siteinspector.com/
NetMechanic - Provides a variety of free services for your
web site including; browser compatibility testing, graphic
file size reduction, link check, HTML check, load time check,
spell check and more.
http://www.netmechanic.com/
(15) Continually add new content to your site. Give your visitors
a reason to keep coming back.
* Design a quality e-book to give to your visitors. It's not
as difficult as it sounds. If you can create a web page, you
can create an e-book. The focus of your e-book should compliment
your web site. Simply write about your passion. If your passion
is sales, then you could share some of your knowledge and
experience by designing your e-book to provide a complete
sales training guide. If your passion is home based business,
you could write an e-book about how to start your own home
based business. If you're writing about your true passion
then you shouldn't have any trouble coming up with something
to write about. For further information on e-books, read the
article entitled, "How to Create an E-book and Drive Massive
Traffic to Your Site by Giving It Away."
http://www.web-source.net/ebook_creation.htm
If you'd rather not write your own e-book, you can pick up
some free e-books to add to your site here:
http://www.web-source.net/free_ebooks.htm
* Provide your visitors with quality, informative articles.
Everybody loves free information. It's the top-selling product
online, so use it to your advantage. Write your own articles
or you can pick some up at the following sites:
Web-Source.net
http://www.web-source.net/free_articles.htm
Marketing & Advertising Supersite
http://www.drnunley.com/
BizWeb2000
http://www.bizweb2000.com/articles.htm
Success Doctor
http://www.success-doctor.com/archive.htm
Before using any articles, make sure you view the author's
copyrights and make certain the article may be published.
If you're not sure, contact the author and request permission
to publish their article whether it be on your web site or
in your e-zine. Most articles for publication can be used
free of charge as long as the authors credits or resource
box is included.
The best advice I can offer is to Keep It Simple. The simple,
well-designed, professional looking web sites make the sales.
Always strive to learn. Knowledge is the key to success.
Copyright © Shelley Lowery
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