These simple errors can be caught, and corrected by: * Running content of your site through a spelling checker * Proofreading everything after spell checking to catch what spelling checker missed * Look at your site, to see if anything isn't lined up, bulleted, indented or bolded properly * Testing every link and e-mail address to be sure it works * Look at every graphic to make sure it shows up properly

You also want to be sure and recheck all of these things again if you make any changes to your website.

As you do all of these things, you want your motivation to be that when a visitor comes to your site, there are no distractions caused by errors on your site. This will allow visitors to focus all of their attention on your products or services.

http://www.CreativeCauldron.com Jeff Colburn is a website designer and writer. His goal is to make process of creating or updating your website easy and simple for you, while creating a website that meets all your needs and expectations. Jeff can also create all of copy for your website.

To see a sample of Jeff's work go to The Creative Cauldron. It's an award winning site filled with information for writers, photographers, artists and other creative people.

Copyright 2004 Jeff Colburn

5. Use of sitemaps. Sitemaps not only increase rankings and placement within Search Engines, they effectively give visitors a "guide" by which to view site, and eliminate confusion on larger sites, such as e-commerce sites. A site map is what its name implies, a road map for your visitors to follow while they are on your site. It's also a road map for Search Engines, so a site map serves two very important purposes on an e-commerce site.

6. Content that is keyword rich and well-written will aid in placement within Search Engines, and keep visitors on a site long enough to purchase. Horribly written sites drive visitors away, while lack of keywords negatively affects placement and rankings. The writing on any site is FIRST IMPRESSION potential customers have of you and your products or services, so paying strict attention to content usually engenders additional sales.

7. Keyword rich title tags will increase traffic overall, and more traffic, of course, means more sales. Title tags help with placement and rankings. Appropriate keywords should also be used for linking internal pages, as this also helps with rankings. Since e-commerce sites are for most part, larger than personal pages, or other types of sites, internal linking does lead to more effective initial indexing by Search Engines also. Care should also be given to "alt" tags that surround all pictures of products, as non-optimized "alt" tags can lead to poor rankings and placement.

8. E-commerce databases and purchasing procedures that are user friendly. Nothing is more frustrating to future buyers than databases or purchase procedures, that are difficult to use, or that keep going down throughout process of purchase. A database and purchase procedure, should be easy to use, yet reliable enough to prevent lost sales, or lost monies from sales.

9. A security feature that ensures visitors that personal information is "safe and secure" within confines of Web site and that reassures them that their personal information will not be shared nor sold. This is a major concern of online visitors, as Web is such an "anonymous" type of medium, so any "assurances" as to safety and security will benefit sales.

10. A thank-you page that is presented immediately upon ordering. This ensures "return purchases" as being courteous and polite is always in style and does leave an overall good impression on visitors!

All in all, an e-commerce Web site is significantly different than a personal Home page, or pages of a non-profit organization. The focus of design and navigation, as well as all other aspects need to focus on primary purpose of site, and that of course, is SALES!