The Secrets to Building a Successful
Website
by Shelley Lowery
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
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the
author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. >http://www.webdesignmastery.com
And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and
feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com
Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary
subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook,
Killer Internet Marketing Strategies
|
