Guidelines to Follow for a Successful Business Web Site

Do you have a web site for your business? If so, do you agree that it needs improvement? It does nobody any good to have a great product or service while having a poor web site. You will learn guidelines to follow to establish a great business web site.

Guideline 1: Your web site must be pleasing to visitors’ eyes. The text you use should be easy to read and have a font of twelve points. Use paragraphs that contain no more than five sentences. Double space your paragraphs. The color of your background page should not be too dark or bright.

Guideline 2: Everything on your web site must function properly. Occasionally test all of your links and graphics. If you decide to insert a contact form table, test it to make sure that any information that is filled out comes to your E-mail address and is easy to understand.

Guideline 3: Cover your bases while anticipating the questions your visitors will have for you. You should include a “Frequently Asked Questions” page or a “Policies” page that provides information on how long it takes for shipping to begin, whether you provide refunds, etc.

Guideline 4: Provide your real address. Your visitors are more likely to trust you if you provide a physical address instead of a post office box address.

Guideline 5: Provide a disclaimer. You must protect yourself from liability by letting your visitors know that there is no guarantee for their satisfaction or improvement through what you offer, their use of your web site is at their own risk, you reserve the right to make any changes to your web site, etc.

Guideline 6: Make it easy for visitors to contact you. Provide your telephone number and E-mail address. Consider hyper linking your E-mail address so that your visitors will not have to type or paste it into their browser.

Guideline 7: Your web site must have a professional appearance and be easy to understand. Proofread your site for spelling and grammatical errors as well as language that is potentially confusing. You must also back up everything you say; for example, if you say that a particular piece of information can be found on a particular page on your site, make sure it is there.

Guideline 8: Make your web site easy to navigate. It helps to provide a site map or a link to other pages on your site at the bottom of each page so that your visitors will not abandon you because you had the audacity to try to make them always move the scroll bar.

Guideline 9: You must quickly grab your visitors’ attention and give them a compelling reason to stay on your web site. Provide an exciting headline at the top of your home page that describes a benefit you provide through your business such as “Learn How to Make More Money”. Your introductory paragraph should clearly explain what you do and how you can help your visitors achieve their goals or solve their problems.

Guideline 10: Provide an easy way for your visitors to pay you. It is a good idea to set up a free premier account with PayPal so that you can provide payment buttons on your web site or give your visitors a chance to request a billing invoice from you.

Guideline 11: Offer something free such as articles pertaining to your industry or tips that teach your visitors how to do something pertaining to what you specialize in. This is a great way to build a rapport with your prospects as well as your credibility.

Guideline 12: Your web site must apply good SEO (search engine optimization) techniques. This includes providing a lot of relevant content, establishing keywords that match the language on your site, avoiding using the same words too much, etc.

Guideline 13: Provide a refund guarantee. Doing this will let your visitors know that you stand by your product.

Use these guidelines to have a successful business web site!