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 temptation to upload content that is not relevant to your web site’s purpose.

Enable quick and easy location of information.

Quite simply, most customers will quickly leave your site if they cannot locate information they are seeking. Internet users increasingly require information to be instantly available and there is no shortage of other 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 will make your company look inefficient and reflects badly on your customer service levels. Search engines also appreciate content that is updated regularly.

Encourage interaction.

Get visitors to interact with your site and spend more time on it. Make a visit an interesting experience for them by including useful online tools, etc. Just make sure they are relevant to your site.

Personalize your site.

Depending on technology you have available 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 opportunity 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 customer newsletter.

Acknowledge customer contact.

It is common courtesy to say ‘thank you’. Very little effort is required to set up an email auto-responder. When requiring customers to complete and submit a form, make sure there is a ‘thank you’ page or pop-up. It reassures customer that you have received their communication and does not leave them wondering whether or not your site is working properly.

Make it a ‘seamless’ experience.

Aim to give customers same level of service online as you give them offline. Your goal should be to facilitate customer’s interaction with your company and allow them to choose how to do business with you. You know that customers are your most valuable asset and that retaining 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 will appreciate it.

Inspire confidence.

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

Get to know your customers.

Learn as much as you can about your customers and 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 about anyone can create one. If you want your site to stand out from rest, plan it carefully and design it with your customers in mind. Far too many web site owners just do not bother.