In such a cluttered on-line world (and getting busier every day), you need to have something on your site that grabs people's attention and more importantly keeps them coming back again and again.

The first thing that you need to make sure is that content you have is current and if possible updated regularly (regularly may mean different things to different businesses, from daily to monthly). This may mean text, pictures or even a seasonal redesign or makeover. Google do this well by simply changing graphic of their logo to represent different events.

Once content is being refreshed, it gives your customers a reason to come back. For many, products or services we sell are not commodity items and so return business is less certain due to infrequency of purchase.

If your content is changing (and obviously worth reading) then your customers are going to return to keep up to date with developments.

To increase your stickiness, you are going to need something extra, something that can entice visitors to your website to return, something SuperSticky!

This elusive element of your website will be different depending on your business and target audience.

Some possible options are:

- Discussion Forums - Auctions / Classifieds - Picture Galleries - User/Customer Reviews Let's discuss each in turn.

Discussion Forums

Discussion Forums, depending on your business and audience, are one of best ways to keep your customers coming back for more. The key here is that your customers are generating your sticky content for you. Just think…every time one of your visitors to your website posts a comment in forum, they are pretty certain to be back to check on responses to it.

You can develop this format into questions and answers. You expert can answer questions of visitors and hopefully your answer to people's problems generates more and more traffic to your site, as you become known as a place to come for advice.

Auctions / Classifieds

Regardless of our connection speed, Internet users expect information to be readily obtainable, pages to download quickly and solutions at click of mouse. As such, you should look at your home page as your Sale point. Have you explained succinctly what you are selling and included links to more detailed information? Note that on first page, you should try to pre-sell your potential customers on benefits of your product or service.

If you are offering many products or services, place only most attractive on first page. Do not overload your first page. People might get confused if you provide too much information on one page. That is one of reasons why I always advise my customers not to use flash intros on their first page or at very lease, allow them to skip through it. Today, internet users have less patience to wait and will move on quickly if pages take too long too load or if they have to “wait through” fancy openers that are all flash and no substance.

Site structure

Structure of your site should be dedicated to one goal only. Leading visitor from your home page (pre-sale point) to different pages (sale points) on your site.

Structure of your site should be as simple as 1 – 2 – 3.

The 1 should be your home page, where you provide basic information (read benefits) about your product or service.

The 2 should be a “more details” page where you will list and elaborate on benefits and prices of your product

And 3 should be your “add to cart” or “contact us” page.

Navigation structure

If you are serious about having your business on Internet, do not experiment with navigation of site. Keep it simple and easy to use. If your pages are long, place a menu on bottom of page to save your users from scrolling to top of page to reach menu.

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