Today I saw a sign on a fast food restaurant that said “Dinner for 5, $3 each” well now that sounds real cheap but if you think about that is actually $15 plus sales tax. It is those things you have to watch, sure you want to sell merchandise but more importantly you want to be in business over the long term and get return customers. Have you ever been at a web site and wanted to buy something but could not find the price unless you clicked and the buy link? Even worse have you ever bought something and when checking out found the shipping charges too high? No wonder the product was so cheap. This is false economy because even though the vendor got you to buy today you probably will not be back. Remember it is business in the long term that matters not today’s sales.

1. No Surprises

There should be no surprises. If they click on a link it should go to where they thought it would go.

2. No Spelling Errors

Read and reread to remove all spelling errors. Often I read it again the next day in order to see mistakes I did not see the day before.

3. No Garish Colors

Think about the design of your web site, it should be subdued in colors and easy to read. Pastel colors will always be safer than harsh or loud colors. The more contrast between text colors page background the better off you are. Black text on a white background is the safest.

4. Recently Updated Pages

Pages that have not been updated in a very long time or look like they have not do not invite visitors to linger.

5. Everything Should Work

Test all of the navigation of your site; try everything to make sure it works.

6. Keep It Simple

Always remember the kiss principle, the simpler the better. Make sure users are never interrupted to download some plug-in for a special feature that seemed so cool when it was added to your web site. Over reliance on JavaScript can be dangerous if someone has it turned off on their computer and they are interrupted with a dialog saying something won’t work. Make sure no features of your site require cookies; again they can get a dialog box with questions and a visitors might have no idea of what it is about. In cases like this they might just go to a different site.

7. Test In Different Browsers

It is important to test your site in as many browsers and computer screen resolutions as possible to avoid all possibilities. The most common is 1024×768. You can find screen resolutions by clicking properties then settings on your windows desktop. You can test in different browsers at: http://browsershots.org/

8. Be A Real Person

Make your contact information easy to see or get to and if you get a product information request make sure to reply quickly. Nothing gets rid of visitors quicker than unresponsiveness.

9. Proudly Display Your Privacy Policy

State your privacy policy right up front. No matter how obvious it seems to you, come right out and say that you are not going to sell any information they leave on your website.

2009-02-01 More-Ways-Your-Blog-Makes-Visitors-Trust-You