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The Top Ten Web Site Musts

By Bonnie Jo Davis

Launching and promoting a successful website is no easy task.  There are thousands of books, articles and web sites with advice on how to design your site.  In order to help you with the basics I compiled a list of the "musts" that pertain to all websites no matter how small or how large.   Following these steps will keep you ahead of the competition.

1.    Buy your own domain name instead of using a free web site. 

Free websites look cheap even if they are well designed and anything that is given away free can disappear without notice at any time.  Domain names are relatively cheap and some web site hosts include the domain name fee in their package.

2.    Find a reliable web site host. 

Ask for recommendations from friends and family.  Look for a host with an established customer base that can provide references to you.  Make sure to find out what equipment they use and what backup they use.

3.    Have a well thought out privacy policy that is clearly available and easy to find.

All but the newest of newbies will want to know what you are planning to do with the information you collect when they visit your website.  This information is especially important if you require visitors to sign-up to access part of your site or to receive an e-mail newsletter.

4.  Less flash, no splash.
Do not, I repeat, do not use a flash or splash page on your web site.  But they're so pretty you say?  They may be pretty but they turn off the majority of visitors who use a dial up connection to access the internet.  Okay, you can put an "Exit" option for those with slow connections but don't forget that search engines and web crawlers cannot index flash pages so you may have trouble getting your website indexed.
5.    Visible contact information.

Do not make your visitors search for your contact information.  This will drive away visitors faster than you can say "contact me."  A lack of contact information may seem that your organization is not legitimate.

6.    Verify outgoing links.
Check links to other web sites frequently.  Nothing is more irritating than find dead links when you're looking for valuable information.  Frontpage by Microsoft has a function that will check links automatically.

7.    Frequently update your site.

The key to web site traffic is repeat visitors.  It is so difficult to snare new visitors that when you get them you want to keep them.  The way to do this is to keep your website fresh.  You can accomplish this by adding new articles, new links to resources and other items such as daily jokes.  Don't forget a good redesign is in order on a periodic basis.

8.    Make your navigation structure easy.
This should be a no brainer.  Organize your website and navigation structure in a clear, easy to follow manner or visitors will go away and not come back.  A table of contents or site index is not only helpful it can also help robots navigate and index other pages in your site.

9.    Content, content, content.

Don't drive away your potential customers by only offering products with little to no valuable content.  Give visiitors a reason to return and return they will and maybe they'll buy something from you.  Some popular content offerings include free articles, newsletters, advice columns, horoscopes, national and international news, etc.

10.    Give away something for free.
You need this in addition to your free articles, etc. on the website.  Give away something that your visitors can keep to remind them to come back to visit your site again and again.  An e-mail newsletter is a popular freebie.

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Author: Bonnie Jo Davis is a home-based Virtual Assistant working with home-based businesses to increase efficiency and profits.  You can reach Bonnie at http://www.virtualhelpcenter.com or by calling (949) 709-2670.