Successful Website

Love What You Do - A Recipe for a Successful Website
By Zhenya Beck

1. Be inspired. Have a business idea that is meaningful to you and convey this meaning to others with your website. Love what you do - your business, your story, your website - lack of integrity will show even if you work with an experienced design or marketing firm.

2. Have a memorable, easy to spell domain name. The best names are advertisements on their own.

3. Start your website planning with the most important basic pages: what you offer, benefits of your products or services, your story, contact information and testimonials from satisfied clients.

4. Keep it simple. Use organization and navigation structure familiar to your audience. Most people do not have time to figure out how innovative navigation works.

5. Make contact information prominent on your site. Put it on every page, so your prospects can contact you at any point of their visit.

6. Testimonials from customers are especially important for online businesses that never meet their prospects face to face. How else can they trust you?

7. Other "trust-building" elements: professional look and feel, company history, memberships and awards, your guarantee to your customer, contact information including physical address and technical details like installed, working and up-to-date SSL certificates for ecommerce sites.

8. Use Flash sparingly if necessary to convey your message, as a cherry on top. Most users don't have time to watch Flash introductions. Another very important consideration for companies that care about their search engine visibility: search engines cannot read Flash files.