MAKING WEB PAGES WORK FOR YOU AND YOUR CLIENTS
PART VIII - 5
ESSENTIALS FOR ANY SITE
After finding a site through a search engine, reading a URL in a magazine ad, or being
sent to the site from a link on another site–there are certain things they'll expect
to see no matter what. Ignoring important elements will mark any site amateurish and not
worth visiting again.
Step 1
IT NEEDS TO DELIVER WHAT IT PROMISES
Typing "car repair" into a search engine turns up Auto Mile Car Dealership among
the sites that list "car repair" in their keyword sections. That site needs to
have more than just a line saying, "Our repair shop is open 12 hours a day" to
justify listing "repair" in the keyword section.
That could make someone angry because they wasted time visiting the site, only
to learn there's no information on car repair. Make sure that keywords lead users to a
sizable amount of information about that topic.
Step 2
IT DOESN’T TAKE LONG TO DOWNLOAD
The classic mistake that companies make is including a photo, sound, or video clip on the
Web site. Some company CEOs say something useless like, "Welcome to our Web site; we
hope you like it." Graphics and sound take a long time to download compared to text
and that creates a problem. For a user with a 14.4 modem, waiting four minutes for
something boring is may make the user run away. Interesting visual effects can be created
on Web sites and they don't take long to download.
Example: skinny horizontal graphics stretching
across the screen take a shorter time to download than large ones using a lot of vertical
space. Black- and-white graphics load faster than color ones.
Step 3
COMPANY INFORMATION IS EASY TO FIND
It doesn't matter if a company is in Maine or Maryland. Clicking the mouse makes it just
as easy to reach one as it is the other. No one is living completely in cyberspace yet.
Users want to know where the real world address. The customer may live
near the company and would like to visit, or maybe just find it interesting to know that a
cactus greenhouse is located in Vermont.
Place the Web site somewhere in traditional real-world space, so list
the physical location. Even more essential include an address,
as well as phone and fax numbers. Some users would rather call a company or mail in an
order rather than e-mail it. This information can provide reassurance that
the company is real and not a con artist. Sometimes the information is wanted because they
are more comfortable with traditional contact methods.
Step 4
IT’S UPDATED FREQUENTLY
Web site administrators update their sites once a week or more.
Time intensive tasks consume a lot of labor, especially when
the One-Hour Browse Rule is factored into the equation: For every change made to a site,
at least one hour should be spent browsing the Web by the person making the change.
Keeping updated and refreshed is the key for companies that expect visitors to return.
There is action on the Web that could tempt visitors to jump somewhere more exciting if
the company's site is boring to them.
Step 5
THERE’S USER INTERACTION
A big advantage of this medium is allowing users to interact immediately. Sending e-mail, filling out a form, entering a contest, or requesting
information the instant they have the urge. They expect to be asked–it's part
of the fun and entertainment of browsing the Web.
Sites with no "user feedback" e-mail
forms, games to play, or forms to fill out is a site that will sit untapped. An
interactive element some sites can include is software that will search a product database
by keywords.
Example: customers looking at a bicycle retailer site can type in "mountain bike
locks" and get a list of desired products.
Internal search engines save time compared to browsing the entire list of products or even
a list of all bicycle locks. Appreciative customers like that and are likely to revisit
the site rather than another bicycle site. Another on-line interacting and time-saving
piece of is an on-line form.
Example: Virtual Reality Labs' customer service form. This on-line form can save time for
company and Web users both.
Visitors can use them to request company or product information, register to visit a site,
asking for a specific customer service, or signing up for customized e-mail newsletters.
Sites can be structured so that the user can customize the page itself.
Expressing preferences in an on-line form users can specify
the parts of the site that will show and which will hide on the next visit.
Web sites have the live "chat," another
part of the Internet that has been copied. Visitors, on some sites, can click on a button
to go to a screen, or "room," where other visitors are listed and are present at
the same time. Someone can type a sentence, hit the "enter" key on the keyboard,
and everyone in the "chat room" sees that person's name and the message and can
respond.
It can be difficult to draw visitors to these chat areas
regularly. What happens is someone goes to visit one, but no one else is there and the
visitor quickly leaves. Scheduling discussions on specific topics and publicizing them, so
enough people attend at the same time to carry on a conversation, would be a smart
approach.