By Diane Thomas
When designing your website always keep in mind the most critical
aspect - your customer. Without him/her you're just floating
around aimlessly in cyberspace.
As you probably already know it usually takes several visits
before a prospective customer actually makes a purchase. How do
you keep them coming back and how do you convince them to
purchase? By design!
Your website should reflect your prospective customer's wants and
needs; and their time at your site should be quality time. This
is not as difficult as it sounds. The first step is to provide
quality content, the second is to make life easy for your
customers.
**Make your website fast loading. It's just too easy to click
away rather than waiting for pages to download - don't give them
the opportunity. Keeping graphics to a minimum and using light
background colors will help.
**Make navigation clear and accessible. Confusion does not bring
visitors back. If your navigation isn't clear or easy to find,
they will ...Click! To avoid this problem provide a main
navigation bar with 8 or less categories. You can sub-navigate
within these using drop-down lists, or set up sub-navigation bars
on your category pages.
**Make your pages easy to read. If visitors have to squint to
read because text is too small or too light, or the color
combination (text on background) is too bright...Click!
**Make your site clean and uncluttered. People lose interest when
a page is so packed full it becomes confusing and overwhelming.
You don't have to put "everything" on your home page. Provide an
overview of what you are offering and what your targeted
customers are interested in. Peak their interest so they will
want to click thru to other pages. In addition, set up a column
or box listing links of interest, new items, etc.
**Write clearly, concisely and to the point using short, direct
sentences. Your text should be active, not passive (for instance:
"Go directly to jail do not pass go"; rather than "you should
not pass go before going to jail").
**Make it easy to place an order or make a contact. Place links
to your order form and contact information on every page (with
telephone numbers, please). Make it easy for your customer to
buy from you or inquire about your products.
If you make life easy for your customers, they will reward you -
and keep coming back!
©2002
About the Author
Diane Thomas is the editor of
eBook Crossroads.com specializing in resources for writers, publishers
and promoters of eBooks and Audio Books. She publishes a monthly ezine,
the eBook Crossroads Insider, offering articles, tips, contests, free downloads
and much more!
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