| Your web site is ranked high in the major search | | | | facilitate reading. Make sure your copy is not long and |
| engines, and you know your products or services are | | | | boring. Remove all unnecessary words. Make the |
| of the highest quality, but your business is still not as | | | | content of your web site as concise and to the point |
| profitable as you would like it to be. And you wonder | | | | as possible. |
| why your sales are not hitting the roof. | | | | Usability: Web site usability is not just about making |
| There are three major factors that determine the | | | | sure everything on the site works, but how quickly |
| ability of a web site to turn visitors into paying clients. | | | | and easily visitors are able to find information on your |
| These are: Design, Usability and Marketing. Let's look | | | | site. Web sites should be designed with the |
| at how each of these contributes to the success of | | | | customers' needs in mind - not the Web site owner's |
| your web site. | | | | needs. If you have an ecommerce web site, make |
| Design: Imagine you are walking down the street and | | | | the buying process easy for your visitor. Are all links |
| you see a shabby, unattractive store. Would you go | | | | placed in the right places on your checkout page so it |
| in, or would you prefer to check out the next store? | | | | is easier for your visitor to find them? Are tabs and |
| The same principle applies to your web site. People | | | | buttons in the same place on each page so they are |
| who land on your web page will check it out; if it's | | | | able to get around your web site easily? |
| uninviting, they will leave your web site and go to the | | | | A usable web site will: |
| next web site on the search engine results page. | | | | - help users achieve their goal |
| Pleasing graphics, layout, colours and type are crucial | | | | - make it easy for them to achieve that goal |
| to web site design. | | | | - make it possible to achieve the goal quickly, and |
| Easy, intuitive navigation is also essential. Remember, | | | | - make achieving that goal a pleasant experience |
| visitors are not familiar with your site and need easy | | | | Marketing: Last, but definitely not the least; the |
| access to the information you provide. A simple way | | | | marketing aspect should be considered. Visitors will |
| to find out if your web site is easy to navigate is to | | | | not see your web site without effective marketing. |
| ask a web newbie to check it out. If they have | | | | How can you get more visitors to your site? One of |
| trouble navigating your site, change the navigation so | | | | the top ways is to through search engine |
| it is easier to find their way around. | | | | optimization. There are several other ways to ensure |
| Animations and fancy graphics may seem interesting | | | | you get traffic to your web site like publishing articles |
| at first, but when they get in the way of finding | | | | and newsletters, blogging, linking etc. Make your web |
| necessary information, they become an obstacle. | | | | site an effective marketing tool so you can attract |
| Both navigation and design should be clean and simple. | | | | visitors. |
| Keep the number of fonts and colors down to three. | | | | First impressions always count, and with so many |
| Content is another key element of your web site. Is | | | | web sites competing for the same products and |
| it interesting, useful and persuasive? Content will | | | | services, you want to make sure you convince |
| determine whether your visitors want to read more | | | | clients about the effectiveness of your product or |
| about your services and are persuaded to buy from | | | | services the first time they arrive at your site. If you |
| your site. Long paragraphs should be replaced with | | | | don't, chances are there won't be a second time. |
| short paragraphs and bullet points or subheads, which | | | | |