Next, determine the overall look, tone, and presentation of your site, and keep it consistent from page to page. The most appealing Web sites have a distinct voice, not just a bland corporate presence. Avoid hype, vague generalities, and making the site just a marketing gimmick. Give your online visitors more credit and respect than that. Design a site that meets their needs, not yours.

Italia Reservations (http://wwte.com/italia.htm), a simple travel Web site, provides key information quickly without making visitors wait for complex images to download.

Start with the assumption that you have only one Web page—which is just one chance—to capture your visitors' attention. So use your main page to spotlight the major portions of the site, with links to each one. Again, remember to design from the user's perspective, not your own. Don't make assumptions about what they "should" know, and don't make it a chore to figure out where everything is. Keep the structure simple and straightforward. Don't bury important information, but get rid of the clutter by filing the limited-interest material at lower levels in the site.

Include a digestible amount of information on each page, especially at the top, or at the introductory level of the site. Don't continually force visitors to scroll down to view a lengthy document, or make them navigate from side to side to look at horizontally formatted tables. Many users won't bother to scroll beyond the text that is immediately visible on their screen. All critical content and navigation options should be near the top of the page.

Pages full of solid text set up a psychological resistance as well. People tend not to read on the Web—they scan. To highlight and break up the text, use headlines, bullet points, and boldface more liberally than you would in print. Make your point in clear, simple terms, and if necessary, refer readers to a linked subpage for more information.

At the same time, avoid putting every little bit of information on a separate page. Cluster "families" of topics together—such as contact lists, press coverage, and product descriptions—so visitors can readily compare related information and print out relevant sections without having to point-and-click all over the site.

When linking pages, don't go too many levels deep. Hyperlinking, the ability to use an icon, graphic, or word for clickable access to another Web page—is one of the Web's main strengths. However, four clicks is about the maximum that most people will tolerate when they're searching for a particular piece of information.

In addition, choose your link names and icons carefully. Visitors should be able to anticipate where each click will take them. A link to "Product Catalog" is intuitively obvious, as is the more informal "Back To Home Page." Don't try to be clever by labeling your link "Hey, Lookee Here" because essentially you're antagonizing your visitors. Also, avoid navigational dead-ends. On each page, include a link back to the main page (home), along with additional navigation options that let visitors jump to other key areas of the site.

Provide visual cues so visitors know where they are at all times. Popular conventions include a file folder graphic with labeled tabs, or buttons that are highlighted according to the current choice, or links that change color once an option is selected.

This Web site by Triaminic (http://www.triaminic.com), a well-known manufacturer of children's medicine, offers discussion groups and health information for parents.

Add a site map. Like a table of contents, a site map diagrams the main sections and subsections of your site in hierarchical, outline form. Some visitors will find your site easier to navigate this way than by following links. Similar to those "You Are Here" maps that are displayed in shopping centers and amusement parks, a site map also provides a helpful sense of location, especially in large and complex sites.

Include a search function. Several full-featured Web-authoring software packages include a search tool capability that allows users to locate a particular term wherever it appears on your site. A search tool is a great shortcut, especially in sites that include lots of text.

Use screen colors, fonts, and layouts that are simple, effective, and legible. Avoid elaborate background designs and overly saturated hues that can overwhelm the text on a page. Some Web browsers handle colors and other design elements in non-standard and unexpected ways. Check your pages with several different browsers, including various versions of the most popular ones, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, to make sure they behave the way you intended.

Minimize your use of complex graphics. A picture isn't necessarily worth a thousand words, especially when it takes forever to download. See the accompanying sidebar, "Don't Make Your Visitors Wait," for some guidelines on acceptable image size and waiting times. Also, for more information about designing graphics that are quick and easy to load, see Speeding Up Internet Graphics in the Enhancing Web Sites issue.

Avoid using frames unless you have a compelling reason to do so. Not all browsers can deal with frames gracefully, and older browsers can't handle them at all. Many surfers don't like frames because they find them confusing and can't anticipate where they're going, and many users have problems printing or bookmarking the page they actually want.

Be cautious in your use of animation, audio, and other special effects. An overly animated site, or one that greets visitors with a musical welcome, immediately creates an unprofessional and somewhat annoying atmosphere. Of course, this depends on your type of business and target audience. In general, however, business users who are looking for information don't want to be distracted from their task. Multimedia applications are often platform-specific, require a special software plug-in, or demand a faster-than-average computer system. If you set up technological barriers around your site, visitors will go elsewhere.

Test your site thoroughly before you take it public. It also might be a good idea to try it out on people who don't know your company well. Observe their behavior; see if they can find their way around. Just a few simple trials can turn up potential trouble spots. Think about working with a usability consultant who can spot problems and suggest solutions you may not have thought of. For more information about this topic, see The Navigation Advantage: Ways To Ensure Visitors Find What They Need in the Enhancing Web Sites issue.

Keep Them Coming Back.

The best way to encourage return visits to your site is to provide a positive experience the first time. That's what the preceding section is all about—ensuring that visitors can locate the information they want quickly and easily, and conduct their business with you in a pleasant, well-organized environment.

But how can you leverage that one-time "feel-good" encounter into many happy return engagements? How do you turn your site into a habit, a scheduled stop on Joe's or Jane's regular online itinerary?

Offering numerous search options, such as these examples from Apple Computer's Web site (http://www.apple.com), helps visitors navigate through large and complex sites.

The answers aren't that different from the principles you follow to build customer loyalty in the non-Web business world. Offer visitors something new and exciting on a regular basis. Remind them that you exist. Cater to their special needs and interests. Offer them more than they can get from your competition. Be responsive, reliable, and available when they need you. Below are some specific tactics for encouraging repeat business on the Web.

Update your content routinely. Make sure everything on your site, from contact names and numbers to detailed product documentation, is accurate and up-to-date. An obviously stale or erroneous bit of information calls everything else on your site into question, and reflects poorly on your business's ability to deliver when it counts. In addition, why should visitors return if they've already seen everything you have to offer and you give them no reason to believe that they will see anything new if they return? If you don't get into a routine of freshening up your site, it shows. Visitors also expect updates that indicate you put some thought into the process, making them feel valued.

Encourage feedback. Include E-mail links at your site for visitors, especially E-mail addresses directed to major customer-related departments. Then, make sure that staff members check their E-mail regularly and respond in a supportive, helpful, and timely manner.

Give them a bonus. A bonus is something useful and unexpected that visitors will be happy to discover at your site. If you're a camera shop, you might feature an expert photographer's tips for taking great pictures. A travel agent could include a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list about popular vacation destinations. A CPA could offer a monthly small business accounting column in which she answers questions posed in E-mail messages from the site's visitors. A grocery store might sponsor a recipe contest, or post a recipe-of-the-week feature.

Personalize your visitors' experience. You can personalize your Web approach by offering convenient, time-saving options. Let visitors customize their view of your site so they see only the categories that interest them, or encourage them to bookmark their "personal page" so each visit takes them directly to the portion of the site they use the most. These settings can be programmed through the user's Web browser using cookies and other similar methods of technology. For more information, see The Inside Track: How To Find Out More About Your Web Site Visitors in the Enhancing Web Sites issue.

Offer recommendations. If you're in a personal-taste-dependent business such as music, video rentals, books, or travel, consider offering recommendations based on each visitor's buying patterns and what customers with similar patterns have purchased in the past. You or your Web site administrator can license intelligent agent programs such as Firefly (http://www.firefly.net) to analyze these patterns and develop recommendations.

Support interaction. Build a Web-based virtual community where visitors can interact and talk about your products and services and how they use them. By participating actively in such conversations, you can ensure that discussions are based on fact, not hearsay, and that the information being exchanged is accurate, complete, and current. An online community can build commitment to your company and products. Not only that, you can use it as a built-in focus group for informal market research.

Invite visitors to subscribe. Offer visitors a free subscription to an electronic newsletter that presents updates about your company and its products, along with pointers about new features and content on your site. It need not be an elaborate or expensive production¾just a plain-text E-mail message written in a friendly, informal style. Include a link to your site, of course, in every issue. Readers with newer E-mail programs can simply click the link and go directly to your site. Others should be able to copy and paste the universal resource locator (URL, or Web address) into their browser's address field.

Promote live online events. Schedule real-time chat and other live events, such as audio interviews or Q&A sessions with experts and well-known people in your field. A bookstore could host an online author "appearance." An accounting firm might host a chat session about tax-related questions just before April 15. A gardening magazine might feature an insect specialist to address pesky problems in an online session with its visitors.

Be there when your customers need you. On the Web, visitors expect you to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If your site's not reachable, they may try back once or twice, but after a couple of attempts they're likely to take their business elsewhere. Choose a reliable Web-hosting service with sufficient capacity to meet your needs. If you plan to run your own Web server, make sure you've got the in-house expertise to do the job right.

For more information about encouraging return visits, see Keep 'Em Coming Back: 10 Steps To Achieve Web Site Loyalty in the Enhancing Web Sites issue.

Spread The Word.

How do you capture your audience's attention in the first place? Promoting your site involves a wide range of activities, from Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) coding and content considerations at the outset, to various positioning tactics, strategic alliances, and long-range marketing efforts. We'll discuss a basic overview of suggestions. More detailed information is available in the "Promoting Sites" section of this issue.

To begin with, design your site with search engine retrieval in mind. Most people start with search services such as AltaVista, Excite, or Infoseek when they're looking for information on the Web. Search engines assign more importance to terms that occur in prominent positions on Web pages. Wherever possible, use descriptive keywords (such as your company name, or the product or service you sell) in your URL, page titles, and introductory paragraphs.

Use META tags in your HTML coding to include additional synonyms and keywords that people might use when they're using a search engine to find your business or businesses like yours. If you're a toy store, for example, you might include META tag keywords such as "games" and "dolls." META tag text doesn't show up on the Web page itself, but it does catch the attention of some search retrieval tools. For more information, see How To Get Your Web Site Listed With A Search Engine in the Enhancing Web Sites issue.

Register your company name (or a descriptive phrase or product name) as your Internet domain name. That's the portion of the URL that appears after the "http://www." For example, http://www.acmepetfood.com is much easier to find—and remember—than http://www.isp.com/~acme/index.htm, or wherever your Internet service provider (ISP) would otherwise park your site. Many ISPs offer Web hosting packages that include domain name registration as part of the deal.

Tell the search engines about your Web site. You can use a commercial service such as Submit-It! (http://www.submit-it.com), which, for a fee, will notify hundreds of search sites on your behalf. Or, do it yourself by going to individual search service sites, such as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) or Excite (http://www.excite.com), and clicking buttons like Suggest A Site, Add URL, or similar labels.

Some search sites, such as GoTo.com (http://www.goto.com), offer a "pay for placement" service, which ensures that their clients' sites come in at, or near, the top of the hit list for searches on topics related to their businesses. Another commercial service called RealNames (http://www.realnames.com) has partnered with AltaVista to give top billing to sites that have registered keywords and terms that are relevant to their business.

In addition, take advantage of the Web's interlinked nature. Encourage suppliers, trade associations, and other professional allies to link from their sites to yours. You can return the favor by doing the same for them. Investigate WebRing's site (http://www.webring.org) for affiliations within your industry. Although the jury is still out about the effectiveness of banner ads on Web sites, check out LinkExchange (http://www.linkexchange.com) as a low-cost method for reciprocal advertising.

Extend your Web presence to the offline world, as well. Include your URL on your business cards, letterhead, press releases, brochures, and other promotional materials. Make sure it works for you everywhere you go online, also. Make your URL a part of your signature for all E-mail messages you respond to, and ask your employees to do the same.

Web sites that work take some work, too. Whatever you expect to get out of something usually requires the same amount of effort put into it. But you don't have to plan, implement, and maintain the site all by yourself. Hire a Webmaster, or depending on the complexity of your site and the size of your budget, develop an entire Web-focused department and promote the right people from within. A Web site that works is a mission-critical job. If you approach it with that attitude, you'll wind up with a site that not only attracts visitors, but maintains their interest and keeps them coming back for more.

by Reva Basch