When you design a web site, the topmost priority should be to make the design so effective that your visitors are convinced with your strategy and become regular buyers or users of the site. After all, a happy visitor is a returning customer.
In order to make successful web sites, you should consider the following strategies during their design:

1. Target your market – Analyze your target audience and design a web site catering to their needs. The look and feel of your site should reflect the personality of your audience. For example, if your web site is designed to sell apparel for teenagers, then it should be trendy, jazzy, and with interactive features. If your site is for doctors, then it should be dignified, elegant, and factual.
2. Ensure credibility – Your site must protect the confidentiality and privacy of its customers. Confidential bank account or credit account details and personal information of customers must be protected at all cost. You must build credibility through a privacy statement. Ensure that every page, especially those asking for personal information, has a conspicuous link to this privacy statement. Provide your contact details with a valid address and an email address.
3. Clarify your objectives – Always design your site with a goal in mind, whether it is for products or services. If your business is multi-faceted, then dedicate a separate page for every product or product category, instead of putting all products in a single page, which may the customer.
4. Keep navigation simple and easy to use – Keep navigation in your web site user-friendly. Provide clear directions on every page. Test all the functionalities and features. Provide online help, a strong catalog of products, and search features to easily locate what they are looking for.
5. Adopt consistent look and feel – Keep the design of your site consistent throughout. The central theme should be reflected throughout the site. Keep a consistent color scheme and other settings.
6. Include interactive features – Keep your site interactive as much as possible by providing online chat, feedback forums, and email forms soliciting questions and concerns from visitors. Personalize your site with analytical tools that enable cross-selling and up-selling. For example, when a customer buys a music system, offer some CDs with it.
7. Content is king – Write direct and engaging content for your products. Be factual and direct in your messages. Seduce your customers with words and engage them long enough to be convinced about your site. Provide real feedback gathered from customers to make your message convincing.
8. Focus on the speed – Nothing puts off a visitor from a web site other than when it takes ages to load content. It should take just about 10 -30 seconds for a page to load to keep user’s attention intact. Minimize load time, avoid flashy presentations unless absolutely necessary, use small-sized graphics, and compress them for quick download.

The above are simple guidelines to follow to make web sites attractive, effective, and useful. They go a long way in attracting customers and engage them long enough for repeat visits.

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