20 Tips for Creating a Customer-Friendly Web Site

What annoys an Net user the most? A quick pseudoscientific survey of a local Net café suggests the top three turn-offs are:

Sites that are really slow to download;

Ones that are confusing to use;

Sites that do not contain the secure information;

The single most common reaction to sites like these is that the visitant really quickly moves on to another web site. Clearly, if you get things wrong there is ordinarily no second chance.

How can you avoid this happening to your business? Well, here are twenty tips to help you once designing or redesigning your company’s web site.

Start with a clean understanding of the intention of your site.

Is the aim of your site to sell, entertain, or inform? The design of your site should be consistent with its purpose. The requirements for a site commercialism computer code online wish be really some from say the web site of a local community newspaper.

Plan the site with the client in mind.

Imagine how your customers (existing and prospects) wish use your site. Consider their reasons for visiting and their needs. Thing that looks logical to you may not appear so to a first-time visitor.

Design for cross-browser compatibility.

Although Net Individual dominates, do not overlook those folk who use alternatives such as Mozilla, Opera and Netscape. Do sure your site can be viewed in else browsers; that way you wish not accidentally reduce the number of visitors to your site.

Choose simplicity over complexity.

Unless you are a design institution showcasing its skills, keep things simple. Visitors (especially frequent ones) may not be affected by your complex animated graphics especially if they serve no apparent useful purpose. Do it simple for visitors to get to the content – that is what most of them are coming to your site for anyway.

Make the navigation intuitive and easy to use.

This is probably one of the two most important aspects of designing a web site, the else being content. Do your site’s navigation logical and clear. Ensure the most important and most often-accessed information is easy to find. Link names should be brief and self-explanatory. Test guidance links to do sure they activity and keep them up-to-date.

Your site should be as visually appealing as possible.

Visual appeal is subjective but the design of your site wish beyond question influence customers’ perceptions of your business as a whole. An unlittered layout, careful select of font size and colors and appropriate use of graphics and pictures should go a long way to ensuring your site creates a nice impression of your business.

Apply a consistent design or ’look and feel’ to your site.

Keep design consistent across your site unless you want your visitors to ask themselves whether they have wandered into another company’s site by accident.

Integrate your web site design with your offline branding.

For many, the Net is still an alien environment so reassure your customers by applying the same stigmatisation online as you do offline. After all, if you have spent a lot of money building your brand why spend more attending to build an entirely some online brand (unless, of course, this is your intention).

Keep page size manageable to ensure speedy downloads.

Online visitors’ patience is measured in milliseconds and not everyone has hi-speed or broadband Net connections. So, keep page sizes inside reasonable limits to ensure that they transfer quickly. Optimize graphic size and avoid golf stroke an pictures on a page unless it adds thing for the visitor.

Ensure your site’s content reflects its purpose.

If yours is a sales site for example, ensure that your content concentrates on selling. Stay focused and avoid the temptation to transfer content that is not relevant to your web site’s purpose.

Enable quick and easy location of information.

Quite simply, most customers wish quickly leave your site if they cannot locate the information they are seeking. Net users progressively require information to be instantly accessible and there is no shortage of else sites eager to take business from you. Think what information customers are likely to want and do not hide it away.

Make sure content is relevant, accurate and up-to-date.

Provide accurate and relevant content and keep it up-to-date. Failure to do this wish do your institution look inefficient and reflects badly on your client service levels. Search engines likewise appreciate content that is updated regularly.

Encourage interaction.

Get visitors to act with your site and spend more time on it. Do a visit an exciting experience for them by including useful online tools, etc. Simply do sure they are relevant to your site.

Personalize your site.

Depending on the technology you have accessible to you, it may be possible to greet visitors to your site by name and serve up content tailored specifically to their needs. If you can do it then do so.

Invite dialogue.

Give your customers the possibleness to contact you via email, online forms, a call-back/call-me facility, web chat, etc. Ask for their feedback via online surveys and feedback forms. Invite them to subscribe to a client newsletter.

Acknowledge client contact.

It is common courtesy to say ‘thank you’. Really little effort is required to set up an email auto-responder. Once requiring customers to complete and submit a form, do sure there is a ‘thank you’ page or pop-up. It reassures the client that you have received their communication and makes not leave them questioning whether or not your site is working properly.

Make it a ‘seamless’ experience.

Aim to give customers the same level of service online as you give them offline. Your goal should be to facilitate the customer’s interaction with your institution and allow them to choose how to do business with you. You cognize that customers are your most valuable plus and that holding them is vitally important.

Give your customers support.

Reassure visitors to your site by providing elements such as help pages, FAQ’s, a site map, terms of use and a privacy policy. They wish appreciate it.

Inspire confidence.

Ensure that your site works properly and its content is up-to-date. Check error messages do sense and forms and data entry fields are logical. Get causal agency to assure your site and spot any grammatical and orthography mistakes. The quality of your site tells customers a lot just about the quality of service they can expect from you.

Get to cognize your customers.

Learn as more as you can just about your customers and the way they use your site (and, if you can, find out how they use your competitors’ sites). Then use this learning to improve your site and increase your return on investment.

The number of web sites is growing every day and now just just about anyone can create one. If you want your site to stand out from the rest, plan it cautiously and design it with your customers in mind. Far too many an web site owners just do not bother.

Christopher Smith is owner of YourSiteAssessed.com (http://www.yoursiteassessed.com) and President of eNewsWriters, Inc. – a institution which writes client newsletters for businesses (http://www.enewswriters.com).

looncrest@hotmail.com