Continued from page 1
Here are a few other things you can do to make sure your site offers visitors a pleasant - and seizure free - browsing experience.
Sit In The Visitor's Chair The best way to make sure your website is as user friendly as it can be, is to sit down at a computer and approach your site from a typical visitor's point of view. Try to imagine that you are seeing
site for
first time. If you are unable to do this, have a friend who has never seen
site click around and offer comments while you take notes.
Have your friend assess
following points: Is
site appealing to
eye? Are
colors pleasing and complimentary? Is
site easy to navigate? Are
topical categories and subcategories in logical order? Is it easy to find what you're looking for? Does
site have a search engine to make finding things easier? Is every feature of
site less than two or three clicks away? If
answer to any or all of these points is no, you have some work to do.
Don't Dictate Technology One sure fire way to repel web site visitors is to require that they have special browser plug-ins or 3rd party add-on browser software installed to view your site. Dictating that
user download and install software is not your place and users will resent you (and your business) for it. Visiting your site should be an effortless pleasure, not a technological chore.
Don't Make Them Wait If your homepage takes longer than 20 seconds to download (appear in
visitor's browser) you are losing visitors, period. Gratuitous animation, large graphics, poorly formatted HTML, bad page layout, and a number of other factors can increase download time. You might have
greatest web site in
world, but if it takes ten minutes to download no one will ever see it.
The lessons to be learned, then, are threefold. One: a website should be designed to satisfy
visitor's needs, not to pacify
site designer's ego.
Two: visitors to a business website are not there to be awed and entertained. They are there looking for information, and unless you give it to them quickly and effortlessly, they will go elsewhere to get it.
And Three: for better mental and physical health avoid Pokemon at all costs.
Here's to your success.
Tim Knox tim@dropshipwholesale.net For information on starting your own online or eBay business, visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

Tim Knox as the president and CEO of two successful technology companies: B2Secure Inc., a Web-based hiring management software company; and Digital Graphiti Inc., a software development company. Tim is also the founder of dropshipwholesale.net, an ebusiness dedicated to the success of online entrepreneurs. http://www.dropshipwholesale.net http://www.smallbusinessqa.com