Website Design Do's

[dmcgill]

So much has been said about search engines, SEO and Google that I feel I have to say something that in my perspective at least is equally as important as doing well in the search engines.
Since I own a search engine and accept hundreds of pages daily into our index database, let me tell you the things I see.

I have seen pages that have a pr of 5 and have a high ranking, for the first three keywords yet as a visitor, I would leave right away. They may get tons of visitors clicking up the site but I can't help but wonder if they are getting customers.

A. Long drawn out text on the home page. You have to read down the site at least half way before you even know what they have, and then a long time more to understand how to get what they have. My friend, if that is me looking for something, I am gone in 30 seconds or less.

B. Promise or guarantee that you won't find a better price: If I read that statement, I am going to take you up on your challange and take a look around.

C. How to contact you? If you have sold me on your product but I need to know exactly what it does and for sure that it will take care of my need, I want to ask you. You would be surprised how many times I have to search for the contact info. I do it cause I am deciding on whither or not to accept your site but average customer isn't going to be so patient.

D. Getting lost in the page: If I find your site interesting and start reading and clicking on links within your site but can't get back to the beginning, rather than spend a ton of time looking, I am gone.

E. Need too much info on me when I go to ask for more info on your product or want to buy it: In todays world, I am careful who I share my info with. I have even seen sites that ask for Social Security numbers... like I am going to give you that!! I'm gone.

So when you have the seo part figured out for your site, don't forget that unless you are able to make those clicks pay $$, what have you gained.

I turn away more sites than I receive and it has nothing to do with the meta tags, titles or keywords.

[cyanide]

Excellent Post dmcgill.

Driving visitors to a site seems to be the most talked about problem for website owners, but just as important, if not more, is keeping them there.
And ultimately invoking a positive reaction.

[dmcgill]

cyanide
I would hope that people will read this because it is such a silly preventable problem. If they follow a few simple ideas.
Hits are not what counts, sales are.
What do I need to do to keep people coming back? and
When they are here, can they figure out what I do?

I don't care if you have 100,000 visitors a day, if they can't figure the above questions out, what the heck is the use?

[matauri]

Yes, very good post. You see too much emphasis by some in driving hits to their site, and not enough effort in keeping them there.

Optimising, IMO, should be from the ground up, learn the tricks & incorporate in your design. After that, concentrate on how you are going to keep people at your site, and how you can convert to sales. Marketing, linking, & search engine submissions should come after that. Tightening your optimising & focusing your marketing is the tail end of process.

1000 unique hits...no sales? 1000 people took trouble to seek you out, and no one wanted to buy. Dont rush off and try an attract another 1000. Sit back, take a look, be objective, and ask why? If you cant see why...send it to a friend and ask them why, or better yet, post it in a forum and ask others why.

I'll always ask why. If I dont ask what people think, then how will I know what people want?

I do a lot of online shopping of goods & services, and I have yet to ever be able to buy what I want in less than the first 5 pages of any search engine! Consequently I will always go to page 10+ straight away now. You want my custom...you sell me your product.


Cindy