The Secrets to Building a Successful Web Site

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 chance of success will be 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 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 within 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 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.

(3) Be cautious when selecting your background and text
colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and
draw 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. 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 is to use colors based on the
type of effect you're trying to achieve.

(4) Avoid using too many animated graphics. Not only can
they be very distracting, but they can also cause your page
to look unprofessional. In addition, animated graphics cause
your page to load more slowly. Fancy graphics won't make
sales.

(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 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. In addition, 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 and
grammatical errors. In addition, make sure your images and
links are all working properly. If you have several errors,
your site will appear to be unprofessional. If you've been
out of school for a while, you may want 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/grammar/index.htm

=> A Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
http://www.grammarbook.com/

=> Exploring English
http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/

(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, 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. If frames
are not properly used, they 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 three.
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 at the top of each
page.

(12) There are thousands of free scripts available on the
Internet that will enable you to create all kinds of special
effects. You may be tempted to try some of these scripts.
However, be very selective and only use a special effect
that will add value to your site.

(13) If you're using music on your site, make sure that you
do not set it to "autoplay." It 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 the following site to test your web pages:

=> 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.

The best advice I can offer is to keep it simple. The
simple, well-designed, professional looking web sites make
the sales.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery 2001-2002