Be honest with yourself about your current website. Use the following tips to really decide if your existing site is up to today's standards in design, loadability, accessibility, and--saleability. After all, if your website isn't up to par, you really shouldn't bother having one. It just makes you and your business look bad. Not receiving many sales or inquiries from your site lately? Haven't bothered to check your email because you never have any anyway? Why do you have a website? Use the following as a guide to really critique your current website:
- How fast does your site "load"? Remember, most users still do use dial-up. If your site takes too long to load, visitors get very impatient and will leave. You know this is true. You hit the "back" button immediately yourself while surfing, now don't you? Some tips for making sure your site loads quickly, what I call, "loadability":Make sure any graphics used are optimized for the web. Your website designer should know all about how to do this for you. If they don't--find a new designer!
Please, leave out any must have animations on your home page, please.
Still have large-patterned backgrounds that you think are "cool" or "pretty"? They aren't. Get rid of them. Fast.
Still using frames & tables because they were so cool just a few years ago? They aren't. Get rid of them. Fast.
How long is that front page? Do you only have one page? You just keep scrolling down and down and down.... and because there isn't even a "back to top" link somewhere way down there, you have to scroll back up and up and up to get back to the top to find a menu link. Please consider reorganizing your information into more pages. Or does your website designer still charge you by the page so you just have one page? Please, call me. I can help.
- Your website must be pleasing to look at. Really, is your site pleasing to look at? Has anyone--recently--told you that you have a nice site? It must have a cohesive design through-out and a color scheme that is easy on the eyes. Your website designer should be experienced in using accessibility standard color schemes for those of us that may have vision impairments.
- Be clear on your target market and be sure that you are targeting that market! Your design and color scheme should all play into your target market's age group, etc. Would you expect a radical design with orange and black colors to sell lift chairs to our Senior Community?
- Does your website contain good keyword density? These days, it isn't good enough to just have your relevant keywords in your meta info. Your site must include your keywords in the content. How do you achieve this? Write good content--and update it frequently!
- Does your site have an easy to use navigation system? If your visitors can't find what they are looking for in a few clicks, they will hit the X and be on to your competitor's site in seconds. Including a search feature is also a very good idea.
- Are you still using that free site at: www.freewebpages.com/clothing sites/children's/someothername/yoursite? And why is it that you even have a website? Please, if you have a business and want to convey anything or sell anything, you need your own domain name, a good site host, and a professional website.
- Ask yourself, would I buy anything from this website? For real, now. Does your site make you want to visit your place of business? Does your site portray professionalism, trust, honesty, integrity? What is your site really saying about you and your business? Spend some time looking at your competitors sites. What do you like about them? What do they portray? Get on the ball, take an honest look at it, make notes about what you should change, and get it done!
- Make it easy for your customers to buy from you! If you have no on-line payment options available to your customers, get one. PayPal makes it easy to accept credit cards from your customers. They don't even have to have a credit card, they can pay via PayPal with an "e-check". There are many payment processing options. Get one implemented on your site. Your website designer can help you decide what is the best option for you and your business.
- Please make sure your site includes a contact page with your company name, physical address, mailing address, email address, telephone #, etc. How can your customers trust you if they don't know anything about your business, it's location, or how to contact you if something goes wrong.
Okay, now seriously, you have asked yourself the above questions, you have taken a good objective look at your site. You have Google-searched other businesses like yours and looked at the top listed sites. Your site may have been great when it was first designed, 3 or 4 years ago. You know in this day and age, things change quickly and especially fast on the internet. Get your site updated and begin to see the results with more hits, more sales and more success!
|
