Components of an Effective Website

Get to the Point

When it comes to building a website it’s essential to not meander off topic in your content.  The information on a web-site's homepage should be direct and concise.  In one powerful paragraph, you must invoke a reader’s interest in your product or service.  People shopping the web are looking for a specific product or service and they want to fulfill their needs quickly.  If you want your business to be their solution it is best to state the facts and prove why your enterprise is the best choice.

Fast Loading

I bet you can’t count the number of times you’ve left a website due to slow loading.  The average consumer does not have the patience to wait for a site that loads at the speed of nail growth.  Flash, huge images and internal video clips can all attribute to a slower website.  While it’s sometimes beneficial to include these features it’s important to leave out what is unnecessary.  Overall, you should make sure your website is efficient and easy to load. 
 

It is what it is

Make sure you are advertising what you are delivering. Search engines and consumers don’t take kindly to websites whose keywords don’t match their content. Proper search engine optimization is key to customers finding you, but you must deliver what you promise. Today’s key search engines track the length of time a customer spends on your site after stumbling across it. If the majority of consumers leave after a few seconds your web ranking will go down. Your customer must find useful information on the keyword they were searching for. A site that is well organized and contains relative keywords will increase your rank as consumers will not only spend more time on the site but also click through more than one page.

Information Please!

Make sure your contact information is accessible from every page. The internet is global and many people want to know where you are and how they can get in touch with you. Make sure you include physical address and phone as well as email. Remember a virtual company is good but an actual company is better.

Keep the Flow Current

Updating your website is essential when it comes to return visits from your customers.  Adding fresh content on a regular basis is ideal as stale content provides a reason for customers to wander.  When updating your content remember to change your keywords so that they are relevant to your edits.

User Interaction

Customers like user interaction such as email forms, chat, contests, videos (preferably streaming from another site) or polls.  These interactive devices will keep a customer engaged making it more likely that they will return to your website.