By S. Denise Hoyle
Over 31 million domain names have been registered worldwide,
with 10,000 names reportedly being registered each day. Out of
all this competition, how do you make sure that your web site
is one of the successful ones?
The good news is if you're building or running a business on
the Internet today, its easy to determine the characteristics
that make those accomplished web sites so successful because
they tend to have these same characteristics in common.
1) Content is King! How many times have you heard this? Well,
that's because its true. Successful sites don't use a lot of
Flash, graphics, or fancy scripts that take the user's short
attention span away from clicking the intended link, or "order"
button. Keep your site simple, and full of useful information -
this will not only bring more traffic to your site, but will
help keep your visitors there and turn them into customers.
2) Keyword density. Search engines index your site using your
keywords, and this is how your visitors will find you. Be sure
to use keywords that are specific to your site, and use them
repeatedly throughout the text on your site, as well as in your
meta tags, titles and alternate text used to describe images.
3) Easy loading pages. Although DSL and cable modem connections
are becoming more common, many users still have slower dial-up
accounts and you can lose as many as 1/3 of your visitors if
your pages don't load in 10 seconds or less.
4) Send out a newsletter. Keep in touch with your customers by
sending them informative newsletters or ezines where you can
also let them know about new products or information available
at your site.
5) Create an affiliate program. Reward your loyal visitors and
customers for helping to spread the word about your products
and services. Paying a commission or referral fee to sites that
recommend your products is an inexpensive way to get quality
traffic to your site.
6) Contact information. Give your visitors as many ways to
contact you as possible. Place your email address, phone number
and mailing address on each of your pages. Some users are leery
of sites that only provide online methods to contact them, and
many search engines won't consider adding a link to your site
if your address and phone number aren't prominently placed on
your pages.
7) Post a privacy policy. Visitors want to know how their email
address and other information will be used if they give it to
you. Assure your visitors that you will not sell it or use the
information to spam them.
8) Three click rule. Make it easy for your visitors to become
customers - give them a clear invitation to buy from you, and
make it take less than three clicks to checkout. Give people
too many choices, or have a difficult checkout process and they
may give up and leave your site for another.
9) Provide an FAQ page. Having a page of your most frequently
asked questions available on your site will cut down on the time
you spend dealing with email from customers, and it will help to
put your customers at ease so they'll be able to buy from you
right away without having to wait for answers to their questions.
10) Include an About Us section. Let your visitors know who you
are and why they should buy from you.
11) Easy navigation. Make the navigation structure of your site
simple and easy to understand. Visitors who can't find what
they're looking for quickly and easily become frustrated and
will leave your site before spending a lot of time searching it.
12) Check your traffic. If your host doesn't provide statistics
on your site traffic, find a free script that will. Keep track
of how many visitors you get to each of your pages so you'll
know what your users are looking for and which areas of your
site you need to work on or add more content to.
Implement these tips at your site to increase your chances of
online sucess, and remember that in order to survive on the
Internet you'll need to keep learning since electronic commerce
is always changing. Therefore, you should plan a site that can
be modified as new methods and techniques are created, or as
your business model changes.
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About the author:
S. Denise Hoyle is President and co-founder of
http://affiliatesifter.com, an affiliate directory site devoted
to providing links, news and information of interest to
webmasters and affiliate program managers.
(c) Copyright 2003, S. Denise Hoyle. All Rights Reserved.
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