Top Ten Tips for a Successful Website

While no-one can guarantee your success on the web, there are certain points that you should consider when building your website which will help you towards achieving your goals. Gone are the days of things flashing across your screen just for the sake of it. Your visitors want clear content, i.e. information about you, your products and services. Stick to these 10 simple points and you'll be on your way to a sound, strong web site presence.

1) Audience

Know your audience and cater to their needs and wants. Some people are too wrapped up in what they do, the jargon they use, and the neat little features they think are the coolest. This is all well and good, but unless your visitor clearly understands what you're saying then you're fighting a losing battle.

Also, make sure your web site reflects the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? Adventure travellers? Sports people, parents, teenagers or young adults? The key is to know your market and build your site to their preferences.

2) What do you want your site to achieve?

• Is it an online brochure - can you reduce printing costs by putting important documents online?
• Will your website be your only outlet or will it supplement existing sales channels?
• Do you want to do e-commerce or are you really quite happy with orders sent via phone or e-mail?
• Is it an enthusiast's site? - Who do you want to visit it and what do you think they will want to see there?

3) Plan your site before starting

A well laid out website is better than a fancy site. Visitors want fast, easy, logical access to your information.

You should sketch out a map of your pages before starting to ensure that the navigation from page to page is clear in your mind. Always think from the perspective of your visitor. Is the information easy to find? Are the items properly positioned?
Decide what content you want to place on which page - for example, product text, photographs, etc

Every commercial website should have a privacy policy that outlines how information provided by your visitors is treated. European companies also need to display their company registration details.

Always maintain a consistent navigation menu so that your visitors are never more than a click or two away from anywhere else on your web site.

Own your visitors - don't send them off to other websites, unless it is absolutely unavoidable.

4) Branding - Use a common style and theme throughout the site

Design really does matter. The "look and feel" should promote and enhance the brand you have (or are trying to establish).

Make sure your website is consistent from front to back. A common mistake is to experiment with different color schemes, fonts, buttons and page styles throughout the site. By all means experiment but decide upon a common theme for each of the pages before starting to build the final website.

Ideally, you should have no more than 2 main theme colors and 2 font styles (one for main text and one for graphics is acceptable). Pastel colors work better than Primary colors and there is a useful tool HERE that helps you choose colors that work well together. 350pages incorporates a "compatible color suggestions" in the color picker to help you decide on the colors for your successful website.

Your graphics should be sized appropriately - not too large. Your photos should be as small as possible while retaining visibility and not too many on the page as this will slow the download from the server. Banner ads can be useful but restrict them to one per page.

5) Identify your niche product or service and promote it first

Make your sales pitch immediately and clearly. Don't let visitors guess what you are doing. Use images and words that relate to what you're selling in order to convey a clear message. Put your features/services up front - don't bury them.

The Web works best for niche products. Unless you have a very large advertising budget or a well-known brand, you will find it difficult to compete with the large companies for "mainstream" products and services. Identify what you do or what you offer that is unique and promote this first of all. If you have mainstream products or services then by all means add them in but make the niche item the main focus at the entry into your site.

Finally, put a call to action on the home page.

6) Build for speed

You have between 8 to 20 seconds to capture the interest of a potential customer. If most of this time is spent waiting for items to download on their screen then you guessed it - they're heading elsewhere.

To minimize waiting, make graphics small and compress them wherever possible. On your home page, use flashy technology sparingly (Flash, animation, audio/video) and only if it's absolutely critical to your presentation.

7) Design for Search Engines

85% of Internet users find what they're looking for via search engines and directories (for example, Google, Yahoo! and MSN). The search engines are getting more and more difficult to get a good placement in. However, there are certain things you can do to improve your positioning on these web sites so that you can increase relevant traffic to yours.

Set up your file tags (also known as meta-tags), keywords, descriptions and titles (this can be done from within the Page Properties menu in 350pages). Never forget the ever-important fact that relevant content within the body of your web site is critical.

Focusing on niche products will help you simply because there are less competitors vying for those keywords, but think carefully about which keywords to use and make sure that they also exist in the text of your pages.

One tip is to enter your keywords in the big search engines and take a look at which competitor sites appear at the top. Then take a look at their Meta-Tags and see if you can present yours in the same way.

The Search Engines also rank on the number of links to your website - see point 8.

8) Identify other sites you can partner with and swap links

Although Search Engines can generate you a reasonable traffic, the best leads will come from links from other web sites. Try and find other sites that carry traffic that you are interested in - for example, if you sell tools for auto repair, then go to the various web sites set up by car enthusiasts and trade links with them. Remember that is unlikely that large companies will be interested in treading links with smaller companies so go for sites that are of a similar size to yours.

9) Content is King!

Good content sells products.

Poor content - out of date information, punctuation/spelling mistakes, inconclusive, too technical, confusing - doesn't.

Visitors are looking for content. If it's difficult to find information then you're on to a loser. If your site is well designed this should be an invisible experience for the visitor.

Resist the all-too-common urge to place absolutely everything about your company on the site - it won't be read.

Try to use bullet points and less content. Studies show that people are much more inclined to read short chunks of information as opposed to paragraphs (think of newspapers).

Black text on a white background is always ideals.

Avoid jargon that won't be understood by target audience.

10) Promote your site on and off the Web

The use of links and Search Engine submissions will help drive web traffic to your site but remember to tell everyone else about it. Print your Web Address (URL) on your Business Cards or tell your friends and colleagues about it. You need to spread the word that you have created an interesting and informative web site and a lot of traffic will come via word of mouth. Never be shy at telling everyone that you have a great Web Site.

Remember that having your own Domain Name is also important in creating the right impression, and that goes for your e-mail address too.