What Makes a Web Site Effective?
An effective web site is one that successfully accomplishes its
purpose: To get your visitors to read your content; sign up for
your newsletter; download your free ebook; come back to your
site; and of course, purchase your product(s). To generate
sales, your web site must target your audience, be user friendly
and professional looking.
Here are some tips on how to make your web site effective and
boost online sales:
Target your audience. Your web site must be focused and
appropriate for your target audience. If you target the wrong
audience, they won't buy. Don't try to sell to everyone. Speak
their language. Use colors and images that are appropriate for
your audience and topic.
Convey a clear message. Express the topic of your web site
clearly with headlines and images. Provide benefits and provide
a headline at the top of every page. Carefully select your
images to best represent your theme and support your sales
message.
User friendly. Your web site must be easy to read and navigate,
and your pages must load fast.
Easy to read. Use easy-to-read text with plenty of white space
but avoid large open spaces. They can be as distracting as too
many graphic images. Use fonts that are appropriate for your
subject matter and for your audience. Use text colors that
contrast but do not clash with your background. Dark text on a
light colored background works well for text-based web sites.
Easy navigation. Easy navigation is essential to keeping
prospective buyers at your site. Make it easy for your visitors
to find what they're looking for. Use consistent, logical
navigation links. Provide plenty of links on your home page,
giving visitors an overview of your web site's content and
choices. Provide links to your home page and main sections (such
as order form, contact page, products, and articles) on every
page. Visitors may not visit your pages in the sequence you
would like them to. Provide a site map (table of contents) if
your site has more than twenty pages. Make sure all links are
working.
Use images without sacrificing speed. A slow web site will cost
you sales. Optimize your images. Keep images and graphics as
small as possible in file size. If large images are necessary to
illustrate your products, display smaller images (thumbnails),
and provide links to the larger versions (which will open on a
new page).
Professional-looking. Use only quality images. Use clipart
sparingly. The important thing is to use graphics that support
your sales message. Don't clutter your web site with graphics
that have nothing to do with the content. Avoid animated
graphics.
Be consistent. Keep the look, layout, banner, navigation,
typefaces, and colors consistent on all your pages.
Be unique. Be original; stand out from your competition with
custom design. Design original graphics to obtain a unique look.
A user-friendly, quality web site will inspire confidence and
your prospects will feel more comfortable buying from you. A
shoddy-looking web site will have the opposite affect. Put some
thought into combining layout, graphics, text and colors into a
unique design. It will pay off in sales and profits.