7 Keys To Creating A Highly Successful Website

by James Low

1. Offer Excellent Customer Service

Always reply to your emails within 12-24 working hours. With the advent of faster communication tools, your visitors expect fast answers too.

First impression counts. You want your visitors (a.k.a. potential customers) to know that your business is real and that you care about their needs. This is especially true for small online businesses or new startups.

2. Let Your Site Load Quickly

If your site takes too long to load on a 56K modem, your visitors will click the stop button and move on to another site.

Notice how Yahoo design their site to load very fast? They don't have much frills on their site and they make full use of small tables and colors to deliver a fast loading site.

If you use a broadband connection, test your site with a 56K modem.

There are also online utilities that you can use to reduce your graphic file sizes (known as "crunching"). Check out http://www.webmasterzine.com/resources/graphics_optimize.htm

3. Minimize the Frills

I have visited sites with their homepage comprising one single large table which takes forever to load. When loading a single large table, most web browsers load the table gradually into their memory first, then display the page only when downloading completes.

If it takes 30s for the table to load, your visitors will be stranded with a blank screen during that 30s! Refrain from using large tables which slow your site, use a combination of small ones instead.

Avoid adding browser-intensive Java programs or Flash presentations on your homepage. Ask yourself whether your visitors really need to see a Flash animation before venturing deeper into your site.

The worst thing is to have your homepage crash their web browser. They will blacklist your site forever!

4. Check for Browser Compatibility

Try to view your website through different web browsers at varying screen resolutions. Your visitors can use different web browsers, software versions or screen resolutions to view your site.

These factors can make your website look very different on their computer screen. Your website can look great on your screen while looking like a disaster on an older web browser.

Design your site to be compatible with both Internet Explorer (first priority) and Netscape - they have over 90% of the web browser market.

5. Content is King!

Why do first time visitors come back again? For content! If your site have useful information which appeal to your target audience, they will add a bookmark and come back regularly.

This factor can make or break your website. Publish high quality content that interest your target audience and update with fresh content regularly.

For example, if you sell gourmet coffees, provide articles on the kinds of coffees, where they are grown, how to select the best coffees, etc.

You site will attract gourmet coffee drinkers, who in turn may buy from you!

6. Give Away Freebies

Look at greeting card sites like bluemountain.com. They get tons of visits daily. What do they do? They give away free electronic greeting cards at their website.

How about software sites? They give away shareware copies of their software. They get targeted traffic - which are converted to sales!

What can you give away free? Try a product sample. If you sell gourmet coffee, give away free gift packs. Your visitors have to fill a request form with their name, mailing address and perhaps the types of coffees that they like. The marketing data collected is valuable.

If you sell services, offer a free 21-day trial of your service. If your visitors like the service, they can become paying customers.

7. Keep Tracking

Site statistics are essential for your site's survival. You can dig a wealth of valuable data from your site statistics.

You can know where in the world your visitors come from. Discover what browsers they use and at what screen resolutions and color depths. Find out which areas of your site are popular and which are not.

You can even know how long your visitors stay on your site and how many pages they view per visit.

All these information are useful for developing and growing your site. You can design content and services that are popular with visitors to attract even more traffic.

Install a comprehensive site statistics software and start gathering data. Alternatively, you can start with free online counters and trackers (with statistics). Check out http://www.webmasterzine.com/resources/counters.htm

James Low is the Editor for WebmasterZine.com. He maintains a FREE online guide of articles & resources that can help YOU succeed. Join their *FREE* Draw and WIN 100,000 Banner Ads for Your Website! Go to http://www.webmasterzine.com