THE SECRETS TO BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL

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, here's a list of sites where

you can pick up some free e-books to add to your site.

- Web-Source.net

http://www.web-source.net

- Book Locker

http://www.booklocker.com/

- LD Publishing

http://www.ldpublishing.com

* 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:

- Article Announce - Writer & Publisher Exchange

http://www.web-source.net/article-announce.htm

Subscribe: mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com

- 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.

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web Source - Your Guide to

Professional Website Design and Development. Join The Syndicator,

our new, free article syndication program and display complete

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