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The main Web page for a business should load in 10-15 seconds
or less.
The biggest mistake made by new businesses on the net is
trying to impress customers with a fancy, super-duper all-action
web page that takes 10 minutes to load. Problem is, after
the first 30 seconds your potential customer is gone! He or
she is off surfing a competitor's page.
I cannot emphasize this too strongly. YOUR FRONT PAGE MUST
LOAD QUICKLY! Then, after you have captured a customer's interest,
you can get a litlle fancier on your internal pages. Customers
will wait longer once you have their attention. (But not much
longer. Keep internal pages to under 1 minute to fully load.
Preferably, much under.) Also, remember that a page that loads
to your PC from your ISP in 15 seconds will not necessarily
load that fast for someone across the country that has to
traverse 10-15 nodes to get to your page. Bandwidth can kill
you!
Here are some points to remember:
Business web pages should NOT have:
(A). SOUND - long download, little or no benefit.
(B). ANIMATION - cute, but again, your customer is
long gone before it loads (the exception is small animated
GIFs. Emphasis on SMALL). You can search the web for these,
or create them yourself with the appropriate software. Also,
there is a usenet group that has many resources available,
and can even create them for you.
(C). LARGE, BRIGHT-COLORED or MULTI-COLORED backgrounds.
A solid grey, beige or tan is recommended. Graphic backgrounds
can be used, provided they are small, load quickly, and do
not interfere with reading the text. (DO NOT distract the
customer from your message. You are trying to sell them something,
not decorate their monitor.)
Also, remember that not everyone has the same browser or
resolution as you. A page that looks really good on your screen
can be hard to read on someone else's. WebTV is especially
prone to this. --Stay away from red in the background. It
bleeds into the text and can make it nearly impossible to
read.
Try to view your page on different computers with different
browsers at different resolution. (The library is one place
to try. Also, a friend's house.) Remember, this is a business!
You are trying to appeal to as many people as possible.
(D). Java or frames. These can be used with great
effect on internal pages, but web robots will not index your
page if they run into either on the front page. [There are
ways to circumvent web robots' inablility to index framed pages,
but John is right; it would be better not to have framed pages
unless necessary. -Pete]
(E). Tiny, hard to read text. I know you have a great
message, and wonderful products, but the guy with a small
monitor will never know if he can't read it. Keep your description
economical. Too many words comes across as a 'hard sell' and
turns off many potential customers.
Business web pages should ALWAYS have:
(1). Your business name, full address, telephone,
email address, and contact person name and email. (EVERY page
on your site should have this.) This builds trust in your
customers. They know who you are and where you are. Also,
your order form should be available from every page. If your
customer gets an impulse to buy, LET HIM! Do not risk losing
his interest while he is trying to find the order page.
(2). Simple, descriptive links from your front page
that tell your potential customer where to view the products,
pricing, detailed descriptions, and anything else YOU would
look for if deciding on a purchase.
(3). Pictures of your products. Simply describing
it doesn't work. You MUST have a picture. A GOOD picture.
The better the picture, the more likely you will have a sale.
Start out with a small thumbnail that can be clicked on to
bring up a larger image, and say this in the link, so customers
are not surprised by a 3 minute graphic download that they
didn't really want. All product pics should be jpegs to load
in the smallest amount of time.
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(4). Reverse links ('back to home page' is always good).
Yes, I know your browser has a 'BACK' button, but not everyone
is a techie, and having reverse links also shows consideration
for the customer on your part. People appreciate this even if
they never use it.
(5). A domain. Domain names can be registered through
Internic or Network Solutions and many other places online
for as little as $15.00. A domain name gives your company
a professional look, and is beneficial in search engine placement.
Try for a domain name that refers to what you sell (greatcoffeepots.com)
not your personal interest or ego (johnsmith.com). Domains
that coincide with metatags and web page content get rated
higher in search engine results.
(6). Appropriate METATAGS that describe content, keywords
and title. These are very important in web page placement
on search engines.
Here is an example of metatags optimized for the search term
'broadcast antennas':
<meta name="description" content="Manufacturer
of broadcast antennas, FM Antennas, UHF Antennas, VHF Antennas,
TV Antennas, waveguide, and field service">
<meta name="keywords" content="antennas,broadcast,fm
antennas,uhf antennas,vhf antennas,tv antennas,broadcast antennas,waveguide,field,
service,field service,BROADCAST ANTENNAS">
<title>Broadcast Antennas</title>
The careful repetition of the term will help to raise your
rating on many search engines. If you domain was 'broadcast_antennas.com'
it would be even better. Let me emphasize 'careful', as too
much repetition can actually have an adverse effect. This
is considered one form of spamming, and can even result in
having your entire domain unlisted with some search engines.
Notice that the company name isn't even mentioned in the
title. (Nobody will search for 'johndoe antennas' if they
don't even know you exist.) I strongly recommend researching
metatags before getting carried away.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Murvine is the Webmaster for: Peterstar International
Russian
Imports www.star-cs.com/peterstar/
and SWR Inc., Broadcast antennas and waveguide www.swr-rf.com
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