Effective Web Sites

Steiner, C. (2010). The 10 essentials of any effective web site. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from: http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/24/web-site-design-entrepreneurs-technology-tips.html

This article, published on Forbes.com Web site, explains the essentials for designing and maintaining an effective website. The author states they the Internet is full of shoddy Web sites and he gives tips on what businesses should do to make sure their site is desirable and effective. The following are the top 10 tips: Who and What; who is the company and what do they do. Front-and-Center Contact Info; make sure contact information is very visible and don’t make the user have to search for it. Speed; make sure your home page loads quickly, rule of thumb is 3 seconds. Clubby Atmosphere; find ways to get people to return to your site, i.e., make free features available to registered users. Tools; have useful applications that help the user. A Clear Path; give the user an easy way to find what they are looking for once they get to the home page. Some Sizzle, More Steak; make the content attractive. The Drum Beat; highlight the company’s two or three main qualities. The Soft Sell; people do not like pushiness. Freshness; fresh content added and updated often. This is good information for all managers because in today’s business world you must have some type of Web site and for many businesses, there needs to be an extensive Web site. Effective Web presence is becoming a very important competitive factor and the lack of a site or presence of an ineffective site can impair a company’s ability to compete in today’s market.