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6. Make sure your links are clearly marked. Underline it, strike it through, change
font color, do something, but make sure it is differentiated from your site’s normal text. If it’s not a link - don’t underline it. Go through your site and make sure that your links lead somewhere other than ‘HTTP 404 - page not found’, it scares most people. A helpful tool for checking your site links is located at [www.stickysauce.com]
7. ‘Enter here and ye shall know truth…’ You do not need a gate-keeper to screen out wandering souls. If first page someone sees upon visiting your site has five or fewer words (one of which being ‘enter’), you’re wasting bandwidth. If it’s a flash intro, that’s a step up - but most visitors click ’skip intro’ link before it even finishes loading.
But you’ve worked so hard on (or paid a lot of money for) that awesome flash intro and somebody better see it! Solution: place a link within your site content. Once you’ve earned trust of your visitors, they will probably watch your flash presentation out of sheer curiosity if nothing else.
So when is a homepage with enter here welcome? Well, usually never - but if you must have one, use it when you’re giving your visitors option of seeing Flash or HTML version of your site.
8. Grammar is overrated [and spill-chekcer too] Most web authoring and word processing software comes with a spell/grammar check utility - don’t let your hard earned money go to waste, use it. Some of more common grammatical mistakes are misusing its, it’s, there, their, they’re, your, you’re, and noone (correct=no one). Proof reading your final product is also helpful. No one is infallible, that’s why pencils have erasers and computer programs have [ctrl+z].
9. Music and other strange noises on your website …The only thing I will say here is - if you are brave enough to use music on your site, make absolutely sure you have a clearly marked ’sound off’ or ’sound mute’ button. ( An even better option would be to let your visitor decide whether or not they want to hear your music and have a ‘play music’ or ‘listen’ button. )
10. All I’ve seen for last 10 minutes is ‘page loading’, I think something might be wrong with my broswer…This is probably one of biggest gripes a site visitor has. If your page takes more than a minute to load (on dial-up) and you have anything less than meaning of life hidden within your content - something needs to be done. The average person does not have a T1 line running through their home.
Of course, there are many other quirks and annoyances out there, and this brief article is not definitive source, but if you want to read more about what NOT to do with your website, visit [http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com]
Telian Adlam is the owner and manager of www.alternativesoho.com - a website dedicated to promoting balance and success, not only in business, but in life.
