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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | NOVEMBER 5, 2002 IN BOX Avoiding Web-Site Traps If your outfit's Internet pages aren't bringing in business and satisfying customers, you may be breaking one of these cardinal rules
Not only can these common Internet frustrations ruin a potent but inexpensive small-business marketing tool, they alienate potential customers and may even send them to a competitor. How do you avoid Web missteps when setting up your online presence? Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein recently got some tips from Donna M. McGuire, of New York City-based Upper West Web. • Giving your Web site a more professional look usually means taking things away, not adding more. Avoid long-loading, flashy splash pages: The wait time can deter a person from going further into your site. • Test the site on different browsers and monitors before going live. The page will vary from system to system, but a good design will always look good. • Try to minimize the number of advertisements on your site. These can obscure or overpower the main message you're trying to convey. • Do not put a counter on the page. This should be for your purpose, and the users do not need to know how many people saw this site before them. • Include an easily accessible contact page with postal and e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Make sure to include your name and logo on every page. Web visitors can lose their bearings while surfing. • Do not place too much text on a page. Make it aesthetically pleasing by breaking up the site with graphics, tables, or other appealing ways to convey information. Decide on an easy-to-read font, and make sure type size and a color don't detract from the overall design. • Remember the "three-click rule." You should be able to get anyplace on the site within three clicks. Your navigation bar (at the top of the page) should contain between five and nine items. Any more than that and the page gets too busy. • Keep the information on your Web site current. Nothing is worse than seeing dated material. • If you use photos of products, make sure the user can click on them to enlarge. A helpful description of the product also helps close sales. • Remember, keep it simple. Sometimes less is best where Web sites are concerned. Choose colors and graphic elements that will compliment the text and the overall message or theme of the site.  Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | NOVEMBER |
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