Webmaster Papers








Will You Site be a BIG SUCCESS. 7 Reasons Why It Might Not!


With so many new websites going up, it is hard sometimes to tell if your site will be a BIG SUCCESS or an unexpected flop? If you are unsure of whether or not your site will fly with visitors or crash and burn, this article is definitely for you. Now we all know the importance of great service, but if your website doesn't communicate this, then you could be headed for failure.

7 Reasons Why Your Website May Be a BIG FLOP!

1. Long Load Times.

If your websites takes more then 30 seconds to load, especially on DSL/Cable then visitors will leave your website, it is as simple as that. You must remember that people want information and they want it yesterday (I know, I know). Since it is so easy to get information from many other sites online, you must make sure that they can get it from your site first and that they can get it quickly. This will keep them coming back to your website everyday, since it is so easy to get what they want.

2. Bad Navigation.

Your Navigation should be located in a easy to access area that the visitor can easily get to as soon as they reach your site. Areas include the top of the page, just below the header and to the left of the page. Navigation that is hard to find will leave a visitor feeling frustrated every time they come to the site. Even though they may get use to its unusual placement, they may not come back to get use to it!

3. Un-finished Pages.

There is nothing worse then coming to a website that has just had a new design done on it(even if it looks great) and finding out that even though the links are active, there is nothing on those sub pages. Of course a nice "coming soon" text can work to let them know the page is coming soon, it does serve us both best if the page and its content are actually there. So make sure all the pages are ready to go before you upload the new site.

4. Bad Color Combination.

All I have to say about this is live green, blue, brown and red may work in some way on a site design but I can't imagine it looking good. Make sure to use colors that jive well with each other, that compliment each other and that doesn't hurt or strain the eyes. One thing to make sure is that if you use a light color on the background then make sure to use a dark text and vice-versa. This will make it easier on all of us to read what is on your website.

5. No Contact Information.

We must all be in touch in one way or another. Well sort of! You Must have contact information on your site, it doesn't have to be on the front page, but it should be at least on its own page. This will give visitors a way to get in touch with you if they need to ask you a question about your site or product.

6. Old Dates/Updated Often.

Make sure you update your site often. People come to your site for updated information, if what was on your site last week, is still there today, they probably won't be coming back. Make sure old dates are taking off as well as new dates are entered correctly. This is extremely important if your site has to do with events going on in the community.

7. Script Errors.

Finally, make sure you test every part of your website, especially when it comes to scripts. Also have it set up so that if a script error happens you catch it before too many of your visitors do. This can be done by either checking the site each day(or a few times a day) or by having an automated email sent to you when someone experiences a error on the site.

I hope these tips help you build a Successful Website!

----------------------------------------------------
Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business at http://www.logo2d.com

©Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright

RELATED ARTICLES


Whats Wrong With My Website?
I ask myself that question about once a month.My website looks fine to me, but what are otherpeople seeing? And what are the Search Enginesseeing? Here's a checklist of 10 ways to optimizeyour website for peak performance:
Creating Personal Web Sites (Part 2)
This is the second part of a two-part article about creating a web site on the Internet and the tools that you will need to do it.
Use Exclusive Content - When Reprint Articles Dont Do Enough
There is no doubt that reprint articles can serve lots of search engine traffic to your site... All you have to do is to check your traffic logs and you will see how much traffic finds your site via one of the major search engines, as a result of those reprint articles being located on your website.
7 Reasons Why Using CSS is a Must
CSS is a new option for website designers that have been using HTML and tables for most of their web designing careers. Of course, it is a huge change and requires learning a new language and skill, however most people are saying CSS is worth it and it will give you more control, options, and is easier to edit. Consider the following 7 reasons why using CSS is a must and see if it convinces you to change your method of web design.
7 Tips To Increase Sales With Your Ecommerce Web Site
Ecommerce is just exploding right now on the Net. More and more people are doing their shopping online. Some Internet retailers are even beating out their offline counterparts. So what does this mean to you? It's important that you are taking full advantage of your web site to get your share of the billions of dollars spent online every year. In this article we are going to cover 7 tips that you can put into practice immediately to increase your sales and revenue with your ecommerce web site.
How to Get Your Visitors to Create Content for Your Website
An ongoing challenge for webmasters today is to provide fresh content that gives visitors a reason to return to their site. Unless you have a full-time staff dedicated to creating regular content, the time involved can be crippling.
Free Web Design Advice
In this article I will give advice and tips of where to find a low cost website design company and also about the best ways of producing a cool website.
Web Design - 7 Key Things to Avoid
A search for "web design" on Google returns more than 325 million results. So how do we start eliminating all these so called designers? Here are a few of the most common shortcomings.
Creating A Quality Web Site Design!
In this article, I will attempt to cover the basics of creating a great quality web design template for your site. Now it's a known fact that the layout or "eye candy" as I put it will determine whether your visitors will stay more than 15 seconds or they will just become another statistic.
Keep Your Navigation Consistent!
One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation is consistency. Why? There's a simple reason.
Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
Making a poorly designed website is one of the easiest things you can do as a webmaster! You barely need to try! If you want to run a successful high traffic website there are many different elements of design that you need to implement, and ones you need to avoid.
Simple Lines and Shapes for Your Logo Design
Geometric designs come in all shapes and sizes? and lines. You can create your logo design or customize your illustration by using simple lines and shapes to create your very own unique image.
Text Is King!
Are you building your website? If so, STOP! Take a look at what you have done so far. How many images do you have? How much text do you have?
Website Design Firm
Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.
Browser Compatibility
Internet Explorer, created by microsoft has been the most popular web browser for many years. But the gap is shrinking with the release of Mozilla Firefox, by an open source community.
Building Your Website to Save You Money
Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE you any money?Websites are more than just marketing tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly promoting you and your products. While that's great, why not use that same website to save yourself some money?How? Well, while I don't know your particular situation, I can provide you with some thought-provoking ideas that you can take back to your web designer for more input.Reduce your support costs.It is often cheaper, easier, and more effective to support customers over the Internet than through more tradiditonal methods such as telephone and direct mail. Services such as instant messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide immediate chat facilities to current and potential customers.Corporations can support their employees and business partners over their corporate intranets, keeping them informed and soliciting their feedback. Providing documentation for perusal saves time and reduces labor on your email server.Providing a map to your location can save your receptionist valuable minutes on the phone explaining turns and streets, freeing her up for more important tasks.Including a forum on your site can bring people of a common industry or interest together to discuss upcoming events, current problems, and other interesting ideas and thoughts. These forums can grow very large very quickly. And, in the meantime, your website traffic increases. Stick an ad on the forum and bring in more sales from people that you already know have expressed interest in your industry.Interested in reading more ways to increase your sales and save money?Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full storynow!
How To Get A Pay Raise From Your Web Site
How many of the visitors to your web site take the action you want them to take? Whether you want them to buy something from you, sign up for your newsletter, enter your sweepstakes, or give you contact information to follow up on, you want them to do something. The percentage of visitors who actually do that something is called your "conversion rate."
Design With Purpose
If your website is falling through the cracks, the chances are that the site has no message, no central core to build traffic or a core readership. Websites that try to do everything usually fail.
Tapping Into The Visual Stimulus Of Your Web Site Visitors
"Oh, my eyes, my eyes! What an eye sore. Quick, click away! Click away!"
Is Your Site Too Slow? Why Image Optimization Is Critical
Graphics are fun, but if you put in too many bells and whistles when you create your web site, you may lose a potential audience whose Internet connection can't handle lots of graphics, and that means you'll be losing potential customers.