Does your site include all
the basic success features you need?
The Web Doctor's free website
analysis will provide you with
the gauge you need to measure for optimal web
site performance.
It's amazing sometimes how a small
change or feature can make a huge difference
in effectiveness. On this page you will find
a free website analysis checklist that you
can perform yourself or you can click
here to have The Web
Doctor do it for you free. By including most,
if not all the success features of this
checklist, you can be sure that your site
will be optimized for performance. In other
words, your site will be optimized to attract
visitors and make
the most of every visitor that comes by.
Take your time, open up an extra
browser or two and go through the list. Take
advantage of these recommendations and you'll
be way ahead of most of your competition.
Website Analysis Checklist
Basic
Success Features of Website
Overall
professional look
Does
your site look professional? It doesn't have
to be fancy. It doesn't have to be high tech.
It doesn't have to have bells and whistles.
In fact, most sites are more effective if
they are not. But, your site must look
balanced, your graphics must be crisp and
clean, your colors should compliment each
other and it must make your visitor feel
comfortable.
Simple
and flowing
When
people are surfing the net they are bombarded
with more than they can handle. That's why
it's so important when they come to your site
that you make them feel like it's not going
to take them an hour to figure out how to get
around. Is your site simple and flowing?
Not
too many choices
For
the same reasons I talked about above, your
site must not offer your visitor too many
choices. Too many choices lead to confusion.
Confusion leads to leaving your site. How
many choices are you presenting your visitors
with? If it's more than a dozen or so on one
page, you might want to rethink your design.
Selling
should not be obvious
If
you are trying to sell me something when I
come to your site, I better not know about
it. Let's face it, people who surf the net
are looking for free stuff. Hardly anyone
sits down at their computer and says,
"OK, now I'm going to go spend some
money!" Now, pretend you are a visitor.
Does your site make you feel like it's trying
to sell you something?
Offers
lots of great free information
Does
your site have lots of great information
people can use? This is what people come to
your site for. Hardly anyone gets on the
internet and says, "I'm going to go
spend some money now!" People want free
information. Not really information about
you, unless they are looking for specific
information about you. Most people don't care
about you or what you do. They
care about what you can do for them!
Especially if it's free. As webmasters we
must accept this fact and design our sites
accordingly. random chat
Ordering
options should include cart, call back order
form, mail or fax form.
If
you are selling a service or product then you
have to make it as easy as possible for
people to order. You should have a shopping
cart that takes as many credit cards as
possible. There are also the latest systems
that allow you to take checks, debit cards
and direct e-mail payments. If you are
looking for additional options or you are not
happy with the present service you have,
click
here for
the top shopping cart people on the net (as
far as I know.)
Here are some other payment processing
options:
http://www.internetsecure.com/
http://www.ccnow.com/
http://www.ibill.com/
http://www.kagi.com/
http://www.paypal.com
Here are some NEW payment processing options:
http://www.marketingtips.com/newsletter/issue59/page1.html
Even if you have all of these methods
for people to pay you on the spot, there are
still some people that are not keen on giving
their personal information on the internet.
For those people (at least 10%) you need to
provide a few more options like:
"Call
Me" Order Form - people
fill out this form and send you all the
information you would normally get without
the credit card info. Then all you have to do
is call them back and they will be more than
happy to give it to you over the phone.
Fax
or Mail In Order Form - this
is for everyone else, including people that
don't have credit cards and such. No matter
how technologically advanced we get, there
will always be people that like to do things
the old fashion way. In fact some actually
take pride in it. It takes all kinds to make
the world go around and if we don't want to
miss out on any sales, we need to
accommodate.
1-800 Numbers - Of
course if you want to get really fancy you
can even have a toll free number to a
fulfillment house (or you, if you have time)
so they can place their order painlessly and
effortlessly just like we do when we purchase
all of the wonderful "must have"
products we buy from TV. (I'm not talking
about me of course!) Клиника сосудистые звездочки Охотный ряд.
Pop
up/under Windows
I
know exactly what you are going to say;
"I hate those pop ups." Hate them
or not, they are one of the most effective
tools on the internet today. They are
absolutely fantastic at increasing enrollment
in newsletter and free courses. I do not
recommend using them to open another lengthy
pitch. Use them for short and sweet messages
like "Hey, don't forget to ...."
Make them open up as a fairly small window.
Usually 4" X 5" is good.
If you have
a real aversion to pop ups then use a pop
under. This version comes up very innocently
behind everything else and stays there until
someone gets to it. You or your webmaster can
find free code on the internet but if you
want to save time I have heard good things
about this pop up generator, click
here . Whatever
you do, don't miss out on this great
opportunity to maximize the effectiveness of
your site.
Make
it easy for leads to contact you
It
seems as if this would be a given, right? I
am totally amazed how many sites I go to that
make it a puzzle to try to figure out how to
get in touch with them. I have actually been
to sites where I actually gave up. What is
the reasoning for that? So they don't make it
easy for the spammers to find their address?
The problem
with this way of thinking is that if its hard
for the spammers to get in touch with you
then it's also going to be hard for your
potential customers to get in touch with you.
Let me let you in on a secret. Spammers have
more patience then your potential customers
do! Do yourself a favor and ALWAYS make it
easy for people to contact you.
Test
to see how long your page loads on a phone
modem
Believe
it or not most people are still on those
slow-as-molasses 28-56K modems. It is very
important that your page does not take too
long to load. Why? Because of a little word
called "CLICK." If they have to
wait too long for your page to come in they
will make like the wind.
To find out how quickly your pages load
click
here
By using this service you can find
out how quickly your web pages load using 6
different types of connections, from a 14K
modem to ADSL high speed internet. If people
have to wait too long for your pages to load,
they WILL move on, guaranteed! Valuable faxless payday loans online information.
Optimized meta tags
Let's face it! Most
search engines today are more interested in $$$$$$$$$$ than they
are in offering an accurate tool to find what you are looking
for. Yes, even the big boys such as Yahoo are going the almighty
dollar way. But no matter what the deal may be in the future,
when the crawlers and spiders come crawling into your neighborhood,
your site must be optimized for effectiveness.
To find out more on how to optimize your meta tags click
here .
To find out more free information about meta tags
click
here
Newsletter
Having
a newsletter is the best way to stay in
contact with your customers or potential
customers. If you don't like writing then you
borrow stuff from other people. There is an
endless list of people that would love to
provide valuable articles and information for
your newsletter, as long as you provide a
little information about them.
Overlooking
the opportunities of having a newsletter is a
mistake that can cost you lots of traffic and
money. You can also use your newsletter to
build tons of traffic to your site by
promoting your newsletter in directories, or
anywhere else you can think of. For a great
list of places you can promote your
newsletter click
here .
Free
Multi Day/Week Course
Offering a free
course is one of the best methods you can use to build a relationship
with your clients or potential client base.
If you
don't know how to put together a course then
use someone
else's course. I'm not saying steal their
course here. I'm saying, get people to sign
up with you for the course and send them your
favorite course with all the proper credits
to the original author. Always check and make
sure it's OK with the original author. You
will probably not encounter much resistance.
After all, it's good for you and good for
them. That's what I love about the internet
-- lots of great opportunities for win-win
situations.
Tracking
devices - the more detailed the better
Needless
to say that you want to know how much traffic
you are getting and where that traffic is
coming from. It is imperative to know where
your visitors are coming from so you can concentrate
your efforts on what works best.
There are so many methods that work to
attract traffic. You want to know what works
best. Here is some free stuff to help you do
that.
* Sitemeter.com - This
counter is my favorite because it provides a
lot of detail and you can keep your stats as
public or as private as you like.
* Bravenet.com - This
site is unbelievable. I have never seen so
many great tools for FREE, including counters
of course.
* Alexa
- This
site will help you see how your site ranks
compared to the millions of other sites on
the internet. Very important information.
Never be fooled by people's claims again.
Bookmark
this site!
Why
not remind your visitors to do something they
are going to wish they had done in the first
place. You have a great site right? You
should be on everyone's favorites. No kidding
though, you always want to make it as easy as
possible for your visitor to take some kind
of action.
While on
the subject, why not add this site to your favorites right now. The code for doing
something like this is fairly simple. If you
are a webmaster and you can figure out how to
add this bookmark script using the code on
this page, then I grant you permission to
copy it. If not, you will need to get your
webmaster to do it for you.
Don't miss
out on this great opportunity to keep them
coming back!
Recommend
us to a friend
If
you don't ask, you usually don't get. I don't
know what the exact statistics are for having
a "recommend us to a friend" link.
But, I know that it happens often enough
where you don't want to miss out on this
opportunity. There are all kinds of
contraptions out there for this type of link.
Some are more complicated that others. Here
is the HTML for a fairly easy one:
<td
height="25"
width="129"><font
face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif"
size="2"><b><a
style="color:#0033CC;text-decoration:none"
href='mailto:enter%20friends%20email%20here?Subject=I
thought you might enjoy this
site%20%20%20&body=I%20thought%20you%27d%20like%20this%20http://ENTER YOUR WEB
ADDRESS HERE'><b><font
face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif" size="2">Tell a
Friend About this
Site</font></b></a></b></font></td>
Even if you just mention, "Don't
forget to tell a friend" somewhere on
your page, that's better than nothing. Don't
miss out on this simple opportunity to bring
traffic your way!
Link
to us
A
large number of people cruising the net are
people that have their own sites. If they
like your site, why not give them the
opportunity to link to your site. As my
experience grows, I have found that having
links on other people's sites is one of the
top 3 traffic producing methods. And best of
all its free.
Just
install a link that takes them to a page that
explains how they can link to you. Provide
them with sample text and descriptions, even
banners. You never know! Click
here for a sample.
Make it as
easy as possible for them to link to your
site. The more links the better. It's a
win-win situation and it can increase your
ratings with some of the search engines to
boot.
Guestbook
There
are very few commercial website owners that
take advantage of this little tool. It can be
great to get some feedback on your site and
to help add people to your mailing list. The
first response to them of course is to thank
them for signing your guest book and then you
can continue to mail whatever you like.
If they
liked your site enough to take the time to
sign your guest book then they must be
interested enough to keep hearing from you.
Of course, always give people a way to
unsubscribe. Many people that sign a
guestbook are trying to create a link from
your site to theirs. That's OK! On the
internet, the motto truly is "the more
the merrier." To start a free and easy
guestbook click
here .
To receive your free website
analysis
from The Web Doctor click
here
