Have you ever visited a website and the layout is so confusing you cannot even locate the "Order" button? Some websites are designed in very complicated formats and contain all the irrelevant information the site designer could lay his hands on. Many clients and buyers never visit such a site twice.

Unfortunately, many websites that are almost impossible for users to navigate around are very common. Most of them also contain very irrelevant and unhelpful contents that do not appeal to a user seeking a particular service or product. Nothing could be so sad to a business establishment than failing to capture the attention of prospective buyers.

There are a number of critical points to observe when developing a business website that most business entrepreneurs fail to observe when starting their internet business. These include:

a) Focus on the visitor

When designing a website, put your primary focus on the visitor. Whether you sell e-books, generate subscribers, educate visitors on certain topics or just drawing traffic for your affiliate business, the first objective of the website will be to attract visitors. Whatever the outlook, general format, contents, graphics or layout, the website must be appealing and easy to navigate about.

b) User friendliness

Once you have attracted a visitor, the next point is to ensure that you retain that visitor. Retaining a visitor is simply serving the needs of that visitor and giving them a reason to come next time. A friendly website must be interesting and straight forward. Most people have very low attention spans, the first two sentences in your website is enough to either make a visitor keep reading or move away from your site. Websites with easy to read, friendly and easy to understand contents will keep visitors interested and wanting to read more.

c) Simple background

A website background is very important. Bad websites are designed with too flashy backgrounds that distract the visitor from the actual website contents and even make the text difficult or impossible to read. Graphics are important, but when not properly used will damage the entire look and feel of the website. When using a solid color, gradient or pattern as a website background, ensure its simplicity and lightness and not filled with distractive graphics. A point to note, the background compliments a website; it must therefore bring out the best even before the visitor reads the contents.

d) Minimize the use of banners

If your site is filled with banners flashing and fighting for attention of the visitor to click them, it will just demonstrate the unprofessionalism in design and how money oriented the site is. Generation of revenue using your business website through advertising should not overshadow the main objective of the website and that of the business. Place your banners strategically and ensure that visitors are not misdirected into clicking banners accidentally.

You will stand absolutely no chance if you cannot attract visitors to your site. The internet is a very competitive marketplace and learning how to attract and retain your visitors is a big step in succeeding online.

Published at seo-marketing.shoppingmallhk.com