Growing a Business Website: Fix the Basics First
Jakob Nielsen:
Here are the biggest issues that led to lost business value in some of our recent consulting projects:
- An e-commerce site lost millions of dollars because overly aggressive homepage promotions made users distrust the price of any product that was not on sale. This is a classic example of the importance of trust-enhancing design in e-commerce.
- Potential customers couldn’t find a service company’s outlets because the store finder required users to know the company’s name for each location. People who used other names left the site, wrongly assuming the company didn’t serve their areas.
- A content site chased users away with intrusive advertising that included few relevant ads.
- A completely novel Internet offering was lost on most users, who didn’t understand the service, how it worked, or what it could offer them. Given their vague inklings about the payoff, users were unwilling to register with the site. Among other problems, users didn’t understand the site’s terminology.
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dwight on March 22nd, 2006 at 5:01 pm
I think trust-enhancing design is extremely underrated. If I visit a site that looks sloppy, I will leave in less than 3 seconds. The only way I go back is if I can’t find the product I’m looking for elsewhere.
Keith Cash on March 23rd, 2006 at 6:24 am
I find these issues true daily with my customer.
Website optimization first. You have to have the search engines find you.
Gear your website for sales lead generation or sale of a product. Informaiton on the service or product is good, bust first and foremost the sales lead or product sale.
Make it easy to contact someone live or a quick email reponse. Lets them know you are real and not a scam.