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Designing
an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as having
a "pretty" site that is a pleasure to
visit. While it is important to have an attractive
site, as much thought must be given to functionality
as to appearance. |
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Many Web designers seem to focus more
on appearance than functionality, and while an attractive
site is helpful, visitors that become frustrated by
the inability of a site to function well, will leave
almost immediately, never to return!
Just as important in designing an e-commerce-style
Web site, is a somewhat basic knowledge of Web site
design, with some simple design skills included. While
a thorough knowledge of design and functionality is
not important, designing an e-commerce site does have
some requirements, or else you'll always find yourself
going back relentlessly and changing the features and
functionality in a vain effort to stay abreast of your
site visitor's needs.
E-commerce sites need to focus on some main areas of
functionality in order to ensure maximum sales:
- Load time, page size, and navigability. Slowly
loading pages, overly large or small pages, and difficult
navigation will only frustrate visitors. Visitors
should never have to "wait" for a page to
load, should never have to scroll back and forth in
order to read a page, nor should they have to "search"
relentlessly for the information they want in order
to purchase. Clean, simple lines, with fast loading,
well laid out pages, make the most sales.
Here's a great service to check your Web site load
time: www.tracert.com
This one actually pings your Web site from different
locations worldwide and returns the average load time
for your site, instead of simply returning a theoretical
value based on the size of your Web page.
- Less use of graphics. While graphics are pleasant
and intriguing, they don't necessarily achieve more
sales. The opposite may be true if too many graphics
are used. A page that is graphics heavy loads more
slowly and the graphics themselves may take the visitors'
minds off the main purpose of the site, i. e. "sales".
If graphics are used at all, they should be optimized
for Web placement, and reduced to the smallest size
possible for viewing. Most graphics can easily be
reduced by approximately twenty percent without affecting
the quality of the graphics.
Here's a neat tool for optimizing your Web site graphics
if you are not very familiar with graphics software:
www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm
- The use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS effectively
eliminates the need of entering repetitive tags like
FONT, reducing your page size significantly. Such
tags can consume up to 5-7% of your page size. Imagine
how much bandwidth you'll save if your Web site has
more than 100 pages!
- Breaking the site up into smaller tables as opposed
to enclosing the entire body of a site in one large
table. This technique enables the page to load in
progression rather than make your visitor stare at
a blank screen until the page is fully loaded. This
is an often overlooked aspect.
- Use of sitemaps. Sitemaps not only increase rankings
and placement within the Search Engines, they effectively
give visitors a "guide" by which to view
the site, and eliminate confusion on larger sites,
such as e-commerce sites. A site map is what its name
implies, a road map for your visitors to follow while
they are on your site. It's also a road map for the
Search Engines, so a site map serves two very important
purposes on an e-commerce site.
- Content that is keyword rich and well-written will
aid in placement within the Search Engines, and keep
visitors on a site long enough to purchase. Horribly
written sites drive visitors away, while the lack
of keywords negatively affects placement and rankings.
The writing on any site is the FIRST IMPRESSION potential
customers have of you and your products or services,
so paying strict attention to the content usually
engenders additional sales.
- Keyword rich title tags will increase traffic overall,
and more traffic, of course, means more sales. Title
tags help with placement and rankings. Appropriate
keywords should also be used for linking internal
pages, as this also helps with rankings. Since e-commerce
sites are for the most part, larger than personal
pages, or other types of sites, the internal linking
does lead to more effective initial indexing by the
Search Engines also. Care should also be given to
the "alt" tags that surround all pictures
of products, as non-optimized "alt" tags
can lead to poor rankings and placement.
- E-commerce databases and purchasing procedures
that are user friendly. Nothing is more frustrating
to future buyers than databases or purchase procedures,
that are difficult to use, or that keep going down
throughout the process of purchase. A database and
purchase procedure, should be easy to use, yet reliable
enough to prevent lost sales, or lost monies from
sales.
- A security feature that ensures visitors that personal
information is "safe and secure" within
the confines of the Web site and that reassures them
that their personal information will not be shared
nor sold. This is a major concern of online visitors,
as the Web is such an "anonymous" type of
medium, so any "assurances" as to safety
and security will benefit sales.
- A thank-you page that is presented immediately
upon ordering. This ensures "return purchases"
as being courteous and polite is always in style and
does leave an overall good impression on visitors!
All in all, an e-commerce Web site is significantly
different than a personal Home page, or pages of a non-profit
organization. The focus of the design and navigation,
as well as all other aspects need to focus on the primary
purpose of the site, and that of course, is the SALES!
About The Author
Vishal Rao, http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com/
Vishal P. Rao is the editor of Home Based Business Opportunities
- A website dedicated to opportunities, ideas and resources
to help you start a home based business. Visit him at:
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com
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