Designing an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as having a
"pretty" site that is a pleasure to visit. While it is important
to have an attractive site, as much thought must be given to
functionality as to appearance.
Many Web designers seem to focus more on appearance than
functionality, and while an attractive site is helpful, visitors
that become frustrated by the inability of a site to function
well, will leave almost immediately, never to return!
Just as important in designing an e-commerce-style Web site, is
a somewhat basic knowledge of Web site design, with some simple
design skills included. While a thorough knowledge of design and
functionality is not important, designing an e-commerce site
does have some requirements, or else you'll always find yourself
going back relentlessly and changing the features and
functionality in a vain effort to stay abreast of your site
visitor's needs.
E-commerce sites need to focus on some main areas of
functionality in order to ensure maximum sales:
1. Load time, page size, and navigability. Slowly loading pages,
overly large or small pages, and difficult navigation will only
frustrate visitors. Visitors should never have to "wait" for a
page to load, should never have to scroll back and forth in
order to read a page, nor should they have to "search"
relentlessly for the information they want in order to purchase.
Clean, simple lines, with fast loading, well laid out pages,
make the most sales.
Here's a great service to check your Web site load time:
http://www.tracert.com/
This one actually pings your Web site from different locations
worldwide and returns the average load time for your site,
instead of simply returning a theoretical value based on the
size of your Web page.
2. Less use of graphics. While graphics are pleasant and
intriguing, they don't necessarily achieve more sales. The
opposite may be true if too many graphics are used. A page that
is graphics heavy loads more slowly and the graphics themselves
may take the visitors' minds off the main purpose of the site,
i. e. "sales". If graphics are used at all, they should be
optimized for Web placement, and reduced to the smallest size
possible for viewing. Most graphics can easily be reduced by
approximately twenty percent without affecting the quality of
the graphics.
Here's a neat tool for optimizing your Web site graphics if you
are not very familiar with graphics software:
http://www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm
3. The use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS effectively
eliminates the need of entering repetitive tags like FONT,
reducing your page size significantly. Such tags can consume up
to 5-7% of your page size. Imagine how much bandwidth you'll
save if your Web site has more than 100 pages!
4. Breaking the site up into smaller tables as opposed to
enclosing the entire body of a site in one large table. This
technique enables the page to load in progression rather than
make your visitor stare at a blank screen until the page is
fully loaded. This is an often overlooked aspect.
5. Use of sitemaps. Sitemaps not only increase rankings and
placement within the Search Engines, they effectively give
visitors a "guide" by which to view the site, and eliminate
confusion on larger sites, such as e-commerce sites. A site map
is what its name implies, a road map for your visitors to follow
while they are on your site. It's also a road map for the Search
Engines, so a site map serves two very important purposes on an
e-commerce site.
6. Content that is keyword rich and well-written will aid in
placement within the Search Engines, and keep visitors on a site
long enough to purchase. Horribly written sites drive visitors
away, while the lack of keywords negatively affects placement
and rankings. The writing on any site is the FIRST IMPRESSION
potential customers have of you and your products or services,
so paying strict attention to the content usually engenders
additional sales.
7. Keyword rich title tags will increase traffic overall, and
more traffic, of course, means more sales. Title tags help with
placement and rankings. Appropriate keywords should also be used
for linking internal pages, as this also helps with rankings.
Since e-commerce sites are for the most part, larger than
personal pages, or other types of sites, the internal linking
does lead to more effective initial indexing by the Search
Engines also. Care should also be given to the "alt" tags that
surround all pictures of products, as non-optimized "alt" tags
can lead to poor rankings and placement.
8. E-commerce databases and purchasing procedures that are user
friendly. Nothing is more frustrating to future buyers than
databases or purchase procedures, that are difficult to use, or
that keep going down throughout the process of purchase. A
database and purchase procedure, should be easy to use, yet
reliable enough to prevent lost sales, or lost monies from sales.
9. A security feature that ensures visitors that personal
information is "safe and secure" within the confines of the Web
site and that reassures them that their personal information
will not be shared nor sold. This is a major concern of online
visitors, as the Web is such an "anonymous" type of medium, so
any "assurances" as to safety and security will benefit sales.
10. A thank-you page that is presented immediately upon
ordering. This ensures "return purchases" as being courteous and
polite is always in style and does leave an overall good
impression on visitors!
All in all, an e-commerce Web site is significantly different
than a personal Home page, or pages of a non-profit
organization. The focus of the design and navigation, as well as
all other aspects need to focus on the primary purpose of the
site, and that of course, is the SALES!
About the author:
Vishal P. Rao is the editor of
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com - A website
dedicated to opportunities, ideas and resources for starting a
home based business. He is also the owner of the
http://www.work-at-home-forum.com - an online community of folks
who work at home.
