KIS - Keep It Simple

You have 30 seconds to gain interest - maximum; and complexity increases download times and can make navigation difficult or confusing. Simplicity is difficult! But your visitors may be very new to browsing - imagine that you have a purchasing director in his fifties who has just started browsing the web and is looking for a company like yours that manufactures bespoke widgets. He gets to your site, has to wait too long and can't find your widget page!

Tell Your Visitors Who and Where You Are

You will be amazed just how many corporations and organisations don't include their address or 'phone number anywhere on their site. Have they got something to hide? An e-mail address is not enough - if I want something now I want to pick up the 'phone and if your competitor provides their number and you don't, guess who I'm going to call? If your web site is easy to update then include contact names wherever possible - people want to know who it is that can help them.

Focus on Content

Content is king. It must be meaningful to your target audience. It must be up to date. It must be interesting.

Make it Easy to Navigate

A good site should be easy to use with everything clearly labeled. It should be easy to see where you are and get back to the site home page. Group pages in a logical way so that they are easy to use. Get someone who knows little about your business and nothing about your site to test how easy it is to find a particular piece of information.

Update Regularly

Change your web site regularly to keep your regular visitors interested and coming back. The web is dynamic and ever changing - the software to manage your site must allow for ease of update.

Make Your Visitors Welcome

Treat visitors to your site as guests. Welcome them - value them. Thank them for completing your response form. Thank them for ordering. Tell them you value them. Keep them on your site for as long as possible.

Use Graphics Carefully

Keep graphic file sizes small for speed of download. Preferably no more than 25k per image and 125K per page. Software is available to help you reduce graphic file sizes.

Use Common Fonts

Use commonly used fonts such as Arial and Verdana. The font a visitor sees in the browser depends on what they have installed on their machine.

Keep Pages Bite Sized

Reading information on screen is not the same as reading from a book. Keep text in manageable chunks and if you really must publish your reference guide to plumbing in the Middle Ages supply it as a download.

Check Your Copy

Do make sure that you proof read everything - preferably have it read by three people who can spell and know their grammar. Spell checkers are only a partial answer as they won't pick up correct words used in inappropriate places, such as "to" and "too".