Are You Chasing Vistors away from your Website?

Day605
Here’s a good article I found by Terri Seymour. Her information is at the end.

To keep your visitors coming back, the main goals of your website are for visitor participation and benefits. Provide an interesting, beneficial and useful website and they will come back!

If your site is annoying you can be sure they will find another site to visit, never to come back to yours.

Here are some ways you can be sure to annoy your visitors: (they might not annoy all, but probably the majority)

** Frames - Chopping up a site with frames is a great way to get your visitors frustrated. These frames are very obtrusive and make navigation and reading your site much harder. They are also disliked by the search engine spiders.

** Overbearing Graphics - Not only are these blinking and flashing graphics distracting and unnecessary, they can also cause your site to download very slowly. Most people do not have the time to sit and wait for an extremely slow site, and will leave before even knowing what your site has to offer.

** No Contact Information - I cannot stress enough how important it is to have your email address and other contact info on every page. This will add credibility to your site and always give your visitors a reason to be assured that you can be reached when needed.

** Hard To Navigate -You want your visitors to be able to get around your site without trouble. Have your links all together in a place that is easily seen. Have them in the same place on every page.

** Inconsistent Page Design - I have been on some sites where after clicking on a link, I didn't even know if I was at the same site. The page was totally different and did not have any of the same information or links as the previous page. After trying to find what I was looking for and not finding it, I left. Please keep your site design uniform and consistent. This will make it much easier on your visitors.

** Spelling and Grammar – Always proofread your web pages. Designing and building a professional website is a waste of time if it reads like a five year old wrote it. With spell checker, grammar checker, dictionaries, etc. there is no excuse for poorly written web pages!

** Too Many Banners - If you want banners on your site, set up a banner exchange page for this purpose only. Do not have your homepage or other pages so loaded with banners that there isn't room for anything else.

** Hard To Read Text - Do not use fancy text or pale text on a pale background. The easiest to read is a dark text on a light background. Also, if you use a textured or print background, be sure that it is not hard on the eyes. One site I visited had a weave look background that made the text so hard to read, after a few minutes of looking around I had to leave because I was getting a headache. If you think it is easy to see get a few more opinions just to be sure!

** Music - Music used to be very common on the web. Practically every site you went to had music. More and more people started realizing that this was a major distraction and annoyance to a lot of people. If you really want music, have a choice for your visitors. Let them decide if they want the music.

** Lack of Content -You've got to have content. People visit a website to see what the site has that will benefit them. Useful, helpful, practical content can't be beat! This would include resources, freebies, tips, ideas, information, interaction, contests, etc.

One thing you can do is visit several sites that pertain to your business. Study these sites and write down what you find annoying. Write down any reasons you have for leaving the site. Take note of what you like about these sites. Incorporate all these findings into creating a sharp, clean, useful website with nothing that will chase away your visitors!

Terri Seymour has several years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site at seymourproducts.com for resources, $1 resell e-books & software, free tutorials, affiliate programs, and a free ezine with bonus report: 77 Ways to Get Traffic!