Saturday, June 20, 2009

Have You Reviewed Your Website ?

In an effort to match customers with products and services some companies really hinder adoption because of all the bells and whistles they make potential customers go through. So, I ask you, "have you checked your website lately?"

There are many ways to make your website friendly to visitors and I will be the first to tell you I do not know all the answers and suggestions. But, as a user of websites on a daily basis "I can point out the common errors webmasters and designers make. Here are just a few:
  • are you forcing visitors to register immediately? You should do this after they are sucked in
  • does your site have a long URL? Keep it short especially when visitors want to paste it into a favorite list or send it to another person.
  • does your site have a search feature? If not people will get frustrated and leave especially if they have to click more that 2X.
  • if your site does not have DIGG, Delicious, or FARK bookmarks you are missing the boat.
  • does your site limit communication only by email? People want options.
  • don't make users retype their email address when registering for asking for information.
  • do not use case sensitive passwords or USERIDs. KISS method is fine for most since we all have too many USERIDS and PW already.
  • do you have widgets in your profile, if not you should.
  • make sure for publishers you get eyeballs on Amazon.com
These are just a few of my ideas based on going to websites and finding things are not as easy a couple of clicks. Remember, and I do not have to tell you this and if I do email me at wgstevens2@gmail.com, people only stay on a site for 1.5 minutes or so if they have to click more than 2X.

No comments: