Your Website Visitors - Will They Stay?

I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'Build it and they willcome'. Although that may have been true a few years ago, now we mustwork, and work hard, to get visitors to our websites.

You can't always control who visits, however, you can have some control over who stays.

Here are a few website no-no's that I have come accross that made me leave without even clicking past the first page.

1.Slow loading pages - For those of us still on dial-up internet accessthis is one of the primary reasons for not hanging around.

Ifyou think you are going to load your page up with lots of images andjavascripts to make it look nice and do great things, think again. Theyslow down the loading of the page. Save that stuff for later pages whenyou have your visitors' attention. If you offer them something theycame to find they will have a little more patience as the remainingpages load.

2. Curser followers - We've all seen them, thoselittle dots or letters that follow the curser around the page. They areso annoying that I don't even bother to read the first paragraph.

OK,so maybe there is a place for them. If you have a site based onentertaining children then perhaps you can use them effectively.However, if your site is focused on getting signups for your affiliateprograms try to keep it professional looking.

3. Flash Intro -These are not as bad as they used to be due to the fact that mostsearch engines can spider and index them now.

What is annoyingthough is when a site has a flash intro and does not give the visitor away to skip it and go directly into the site. Again this isparticularly bad for those with dial-up connections. If I have to sitand watch a little colored bar that says 'loading', guess what, I'mgone. Always give your visitor a means to skip the intro if they wantto.

4. Colored backgrounds and printing - Have you ever had toget up close to your monitor to read the words on a website? I have andI can tell you that I didn't read too many lines before I was gone.

Thereare definitely some color schemes you should stay away from. Forexample, red letters on a black background are extremely hard to read.I'm sure you have come accross some yourself that were sure-firetriggers for the 'back' button.

Simple black letters on awhite background is your best bet for easy reading. Also be sure tokeep your paragraphs short and have lots of 'white space' on your page.

I'm not saying not to use colors in your site, there have beenmany studies that indicate certain colors trigger certain responses,however, you really need to experiment to get the right combination.

5. Animated Banners - DO NOT put animated banners on your home page.

Banners,animated or not, are images and can slow down the loading of your page.Also, animated banners are distracting and if you distract your visitorfrom the main purpose of your site......there goes a possible sale.

Iknow that many people just starting out are using Banner Exchanges as ameans of getting visitors to their site. That's OK just don't put themon your home page. Put them at the bottom of all the rest of the pagesif you want, just not on your index page. Remember, if your home pageis strong enough to capture your visitors' interest, they will click onmore pages and you will get your banner impressions.

6. Toomuch on one page - I've seen some sites where the owner has just aboutevery affiliate program he belongs to on his home page.

If Itype a keyword into a search engine and click on the first site thatcomes up, I want to be able to find what I'm looking for without havingto sift through paragraph upon paragraph of other advertisements andaffiliate links. If your visitors don't think they will find what theycame to find, you'll lose them.

You should use your home pageto welcome your visitors and tell them exactly what they want to know.If your site is about pet grooming, tell them that right from thestart. Let them know the kind of information they can expect to find oneach of your pages. Make sure your navigation is easy to follow byhaving the main navigation bar at the top left of your page and puttinglinks throughout the text.

Your home page should lead your visitors to the rest of your site, that's where you do your selling.

Thoseare a few of the deterants that I have found while searching forinformation on the internet. I hope you will be able to use thisinformation to make your own sites more user friendly and keep yourvisitors from clicking away.

Stay Away From Hyphenated Domains!
There is a reason why you don
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