Some Do's and Don'ts
of Business Websites

Sometimes is appears that people create and publish websites just to aggravate visitors!
There are some excellent websites, but there are also a lot of dreadful ones too.

As the internet continues to grow in popularity and importance for consumers and businesses alike, the of websites needs to keep pace. But what do we mean by quality - or lack of it?

Following are a number of ways that websites can fail, causing irritation to site visitors and losing business customers. The common thread running through these failures is a lack of consideration for the site visitor - your potential customer - and the experience they have on your website.

Animation on Websites

Kids like watching animated cartoons first thing in the morning - business people, professionals, most other adults and especially those looking for information or to buy from your site DON'T !

Showy Flash animations, animated gif's and flying words can be really annoying. They can distract
the visitor from achieving their goals.

If your site is an entertainment site, or if your product or service can be better demonstrated using
Flash, Quick Time, or similar multimedia applications, offer your visitors the chance to click a link to view - but don't force it on them.

Otherwise, try to avoid distractive motion.

Scrolling - and Scrolling - and Scrolling

Computer monitors really aren't the best medium for reading. Having to scroll down multiple screen's worth of information can cause effects on visitors eyes, disorientate them and sap their interest. Where a site is very large it is important to always provide a clear frame of reference for
your visitors at all times.

If a page requires more than two full screens of scrolling, consider splitting it up into multiple pages. This is especially the case in the first page of any subject - you first need to grab your visitor's attention - convince them, in as few words as possible, that they really need to read on. One you have their commitment, they are much more likely to scroll.

Long Text - Unwieldy Text - Large Paragraphs - Unbroken Text

Continuing on the theme from the last sentence, site visitors really have a desire to glean
the information you have to offer before they will trudge through big chunks of unbroken text
online.

If someone is just shopping around for a product or service, you'll lose them if they have to endure an obstacle course of word after word.

• It is harder to read text on the Web than in print medium.
• Web users are notoriously impatient

So

• make your content easy to read
• only use the words you need to
• Use titles, sub-titles, small paragraphs, bullets and numbering.

Lack of Company Contact Information

If the only contact information you supply on your website is an email address, visitors may doubt your legitimacy.

• Make it easy for your existing and potential customers to talk with you.
• Offer as many contact methods as possible
• Postal Addresses still infer some form of legitimacy!

Don't hide behind an anonymous and cold email address? Use all the modern technology that is available.

You may be a one man band - but you don't need to appear so!

• Answering machines are kind of ancient technology - but they still offer a useful service
• Many telecom suppliers offer services similar to the BT 1571 service
• You don't need to give out your home or personal phone number - 0845 numbers are available at relatively low cost - and 0870/0871 number can be obtained for FREE!
• You may not have a fax machine, but you can get a no-cost 0870/0871 fax number which will deliver fax messages directly to you e-mail
• If you feel you don't want to give out your postal address, why not consider a PO Box number?
  

Out of Date Content

One of the biggest turn-offs for site visitors is outdated content.

• If you have a page where information doesn't change very much - don't tell people it was last updated three years ago!
• If you have pages where the legitimacy of the information may change over time - make sure you update it as and when required.

There's so much information out there that, if someone thinks your info is out of date, they will go look elsewhere.

Remember, there are some regulations which apply to some websites - if your site is affected by the United Kingdom's e-Commerce Regulations or Distance Selling Regulations - you could fall foul of the law if certain critical information, such as prices, is not maintained.

• Keeping your content fresh will attract repeat visitors
• Repeat visitors are more likely to turn into customers
• Customers make you money !

 

Slow Page Download Time

This well known issue is still a problem.

If someone clicks on a site and has to sit there waiting for it to appear, they quickly start to get impatient.

Web users are impatient - that's the reality. They know there are other sites out there with the
same information that will download more quickly, so why wait for yours?

So, if your site is slow - look to the reasons why?

• Is it your hosting - do you need to upgrade and change supplier?
• Is it the size of those photographs you've put up there? You can take wonderful pictures with your latest multi-megapixel camera, but if people won't sit around waiting for them to download, what's the point. You need to manipulate and optimise your images!
• Are your pages just far too big? Rationalise them - have more pages rather than long pages - and make each word count.

It's All About ME

Get this - in general, no one cares about you, your company or your thoughts!

What matters to your website visitor what you can do for them.

Sites where the visitor's first experience is pictures of the company building or a dissertation on the company's deep philosophy on the way business should be, don't really spark off ideas which stimulate a person's interest (yes, you may want to have such information on your site - but keep it behind the "About" button).

To focus your potential customer's attention

• speak directly to them
• tell them what you have to offer them

Websites which quickly and simply tell how they can solve people's problems, make their lives easier, safer, better, richer or more comfortable have a much better chance of turning browsers into customers.

Obscure Navigation Naming

Some websites offer their visitors obscure names and titles on their button or text navigation systems. These might mean something to the site owner - but are a lucky-bag or guessing game for the site visitor.

Button and link names need to tell the visitor where the link leads to. Make it as easy as
possible for a visitor to know where they're going before they click.

There may be times when providing a link with an obscure or creative name may stimulate curiosity of a site visitor and get them to click on it - but you need to have created the correct ambience first.

As a first and general rule, keep links and buttons as descriptive as possible (and, by the way, descriptive text links leading to descriptive page file names, will also be helpful for search engine performance)

 

Poor Navigation

Website visitors want to be able to find their way around with ease. So they should not have to learn your navigation system.

• Provide a consistent and easily recognisable navigation system on every page.
• Even on large sites, make sure people can easily find their way to each major section of the site and to critical pages such as contact and "buy now" information.

Repeating again the fact that web browsers are impatient - but provide them with the information they need and the reason to contact you and they could quickly become customers.

 

Changing Look & Feel

The look and feel of a website delivers it's own messages. If the look & feel dramatically changes from page to page, visitors are given a confusing message - have I accidentally navigated to a different website? - or am I looking at a difference service or product?
another company, a partner or subsidiary.

Different looks to different pages can result for a variety of reasons -

• perhaps you built the site yourself without any particular template to work from
• perhaps you have added pages to an original site

Whatever the reason, try to maintain the overall look and feel throughout the site:-

• maintain the navigation system
• maintain the key site colour scheme
• maintain any key banners and logos which form part of the main design
• maintain the font types and sizes
• maintain header colours and sizes

The reliability and consistence of you website
can say something about you as a business