Web Site Design Tips

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51. Let Your Visitors Know "What's New"

No one spends nearly as much time on your web site as you. In fact, visitors could be spending just a few minutes at your web site each month, so you better make sure their attention is drawn immediately to the right place.

When you introduce new products and services, it's very important to be certain that your visitors know that it's new. Keep in mind that people scan pages rather than reading them in their entirety. And they are more likely to notice something with a "*WHAT's NEW*" icon next to it, or even something labeled with today's date.
Unless you identify new content as being important or special, your visitors won't know whether or not they should pay any attention to it. Also consider that it's as important to delete those " WHAT'S NEW" labels periodically. Your visitors won't be impressed by a blinking "WHAT'S NEW" banner alongside an item on the subject of last year's World Series Playoffs.
Want one of the great web site design tips for letting your customers know what's new while creating a customer base and opt-in list simultaneously? Offer to e-mail your visitors with new information on a regular basis via newsletter, e-Zine or, as is becoming incresingly popular, an RSS feed. (You'll then include content about upcoming specials, new products, and/or special sale-items in these communications.)
Insert a box on your home page with a blurb that explains that by providing an e-mail address in the provided space, or by registering for your RSS feed, they will receive exciting new information every month along with exclusive offers that are only available to your subscribers.
Here's the best part: It's a lot easier than you'd expect to set up this kind of newsletter e-Zine. You already have your content which is live on your web site, so it's simply a matter of changing the formatting and sending it to your customers. RSS feeds, the latest rage, are even simpler to set up. You can get your web pages to send out the feed automatically as they get updated.

52. Engage Your Visitors

It has been proven that the more frequently your visitors interact with your web site, the more they become comfortable with you. And the more they become comfortable, the more likely that they will make purchases. Here are three sure-fire ways to motivate your visitors to engage with your web site:

53. Create a Suggestion Box

This is one of the great web site design tips for getting your customers engaged with your products and services: Allow them to suggest new products they'd like to see offered, or let them recommend ways to make your products better, or tell you how they use your products, your web site or, for that matter, just about anything that may be on their minds.

54. Hold A Contest

Have your customers submit a blurb on why they can't live without your product. Then offer cash or a merchandise reward to the winners. You'll not only be getting your customers engaged, you'll be gathering testimonials that you can post prominently on your site.

55. Run an Online Survey

Your customers can then express their opinions about your online business from which you'll learn a ton about what they love and what they hate about your services or your products.

56. Check and Re-Check All Your Content

Be aware that when we say "content", we aren't just talking about textual elements of your web site. We're also talking about the images, links, logos and e-mail addresses. One of the most important web site design tips for keeping your site current (and thereby driving sales) is to rotate most of your features and specials.

Have you featured your best-selling product prominently on your web site? If not, your visitors won't be able to locate whatever it was that they came for...and that will cost you profits!
Always keep your online catalog current. Nothing drives customers away quicker than getting an e-mail saying the product they just ordered is no longer available. I'm always amazed at sites list unavailable, outdated products as still being for sale.
Double-check each of your links frequently, every single one -- even the one at the bottom that points to your company's privacy policy. When the link to your "Happy Customers" page is broken, how comfortable will your customer be submitting their credit card information?
And while we're at it, be sure that anything you label as "Coming Soon" actually comes soon! If it won't be ready within a week, remove it. This is one of the classic web site design tips that will be ignored at your peril.
I'd also recommend that you go visit your web site from a computer other that is not your own. You'll be amazed by what you find. The image that looked so slick on your computer might actually be unviewable, or worse, when browse from someone else's!
Take note of how long your images and other content take to appear on the screen. More than 10 seconds and you're you're probably losing customers in droves!

The idea is to help your visitors feel comfortable enough to buy something from you. There's a direct correlation between people's onlline comfort level and how likely they will be to make an online purchase. And a web site where things work correctly is a pretty comfortable place.

57. Make Use of Free Content Providers

There are actually quite a number of places where you can find fresh content on nearly any imaginable topic which you can use for free on your web site. Naturally the quality of the content varies enormously, so use it carefully.

You should also be aware that certain providers of free content will do their best to lure visitors from your site to theirs. For example, You might find that the news headlines you just posted on your web site instantly whisk your visitors away the moment they click on them. That is obviously not what you had in mind so, if you wish to locate free content for your web site, here are some good places to begin your search:

World Wide Information Outlet (www.certificate.net/wwio)
Web-Source.net
FreeSticky.Com
IdeaMarketers.com

58. Keep Everything

Here's one of the easy, yet powerful, web site design tips: Want to know a nearly effortless way to double the usefulness of your site to your visitors? Archive all of your content. A study conducted by online usability expert Jakob Nielsen demonstrated that an archive of previous content raises a web site's usefulness by at least 50 percent. Since you've already created the content, it's a snap to index all those old articles in a permanent archive. And your customers will be very glad that you did.

Also, while your archive keeps growing, you'll be adding credibility to your online business as your customers will begin to notice how long you've actually been around. With those extra archived pages, your customers will find themselves hanging out a little longer -- making them all the more comfortable and all the more likely to purchase something.

59. Listen, Look, and Learn

So, then, you're following most of these web site design tips and you're spending plenty of time making your web site as current as it can be. Now you need to learn wwhether or not it's had any impact. If you've done all the right things, and done them right, you'll begin to see the results where it really counts--in your bank account!

However, there are a few other neat ways to measure the success of your hard work.

Spend some time going through all the server logs that your Web host provides and find out how much time your visitors actually spend staring at your content. For whatever reason, if people aren't accessing your "Weekly Updates" page, then you probably ought not waste a lot of time creating content for it.

The suggestion box you set up is also a clever way to judge the value of your content. If no one EVER comments on your "Weekly News", it's probably not very efficient to labor over it at the beginning (or end) of each week.

Stocking your site with fresh content doesn't mean scrolling news headlines along the top of your site's home page. Just maintain your focus on the bottom line by asking your yourself, "Is this fresh content helping my sales or not"? If you can answer yes, then you're on the right track.

Remember: Selling products online means that your web site is very likely to be the only place your customers will ever have an opportunity to interact with you. Whatever you post on your web site speaks volumes about the kind of business you're running: A web site with current, relevant information will be able to deliver instant credibility for your and all your products.

Keep your content relevant, and your web site current, and your visitors will spend more time there. The longer they linger, the more significant the impact will be on your bottom line! 60. Align Your Website to Your Business Objective

To Design a web site that really works, you must view it as an extension of your business and make sure every single page design is fully aligned with your unique business objectives.

Creating a successful online business is no simple process. You can't simply create a neat graphic design, then write some basic copy, upload it all and expect to be successful. Creating a successful site is an ongoing process which continues well after the initial site design has been completed.

That process calls for a critical, objective view of marketing and business processes along with an approach to design that's based on imbuing your site with the functionality, features, and content enabling it to be successful. And, of course, following these web site design tips!

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