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Adam's Advice: 8 Keys to an Effective Website

This week, I've outlined 8 key characteristics that help define an effective website. Try to incorporate as many of these as possible into your site!

1. Appealing and professionally designed. Your company's website is not the place to try out your new-found artistic "ability"! Make the investment to have a professional design your site, keeping in mind that it should be appealing to your target audience.
2. Valuable, useful and fun. Visitors should find information of importance to them and have a reason or need to go to the site. And by using some of the latest technology like streaming video can make it fun and give visitors a reason to bookmark your site and return often.
3. Current and timely. Make an effort to consistently update the content of your site so that it is fresh. This gives visitors another reason to return to your site frequently for the most up-to-date information.
4. Easy to find and use. Take the time to choose keywords wisely and register with search engines so your site will appear at the top of search results. And make your web address as simple and easy to remember as possible.
5. User-friendly navigation. Ensure each page has consistent navigation buttons that are easy to find and follow for a first-time visitor. If a visitor gets confused or frustrated on where to go, they'll quickly leave your site.
6. Involve the visitor. The more you can interact with someone on their site, the more likely they will remember you and be likely to return. Have a registration, e-mail sign-up, survey or other "involvement devices".
7. Responsive to users. Make adjustments to your site according to visitors' suggestions and comments. Encourage visitors to provide feedback with a simple form.
8. Load quickly. Our attention-span online is very short, so be sure that your page loads quickly. Include interesting graphics, but be aware that graphics take longer to load, so don't overdo it.