1. Give it a job to do
Your website has the potential to be so much more than a mere online brochure; give it definite goals that will be beneficial to your business in a more active way. These goals should be specific and easy to measure. Examples of goals could be:

• Generate calls about a special offer
• Have people print out a rebate coupon
• Get people to sign up for a newsletter
• Increase application form downloads
• Obtain referrals from existing clients

2. Put the most important information on your home page
Once you have defined goals for your site, use that information to decide how to organize your home page.

I recently conducted an informal survey of small business websites and found that 7 out of 10 sites prominently feature impractical information on their home page, such as company history, mission statements or lengthy marketing text. That kind of information is secondary at best and should be moved to a more appropriate section, if needed at all.

You only have a few seconds to grab a visitor’s attention; make them count! Since most people will not visit your site to read your mission statement, focus instead on the goals you have defined and be specific but brief.

3. Invest in good design
The previously mentioned survey also revealed that 7 out of 10 sites give an unprofessional impression because of:

• Animated text and moving graphics
• Music (especially if it cannot be controlled by the user)
• Menus that do not organize information logically
• Content that has no clear point

People can tell when a website is professionally designed. In fact, the design (”look”) of a website is the #1 factor people use to decide if they can trust it.

You don’t need to invest a large amount for your website to look professional; in fact, expensive graphic-heavy sites are often not effective in communicating the right message. Keep in mind that a good designer will take the time ask about your business goals before giving you any suggestions.

4. Just be yourself
There is no need to pretend that your business is bigger than it actually is; customers will eventually figure it out anyway. Don’t use “we” if you are a consultant working alone and resist the temptation to spread out and dilute information to fill more pages. The size of your website doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of your product/service. If you only have enough real information to fill one page, keep it to one page!

5. Keep it up to date!
If your site includes time-relevant information that is not up to date, visitors will have the impression that your business is stagnating when in fact it may be doing very well. If you cannot update your site regularly, it is better to keep the information to a strict minimum and avoid anything that may change. You will seem negligent if your site still displays Labor Day specials in February! Seasonal offers and “What’s New?” sections should be avoided unless updates are made (at least) monthly.

For more information:
Consumer Reports WebWatch Investigation: How do People Evaluate a Website’s Credibility?