Websites are bringing in more and more businesses to companies which are feeling the pinch of the global recession. And new companies are realising that a website is as important, if not more so, than every other aspect of their business. But it pays to get it right. Following these four principles will help you generate a more successful website.

Bad marketing

Websites can fail in the same way as real-world businesses, but established businesses sometimes don’t have enough understanding of how websites work.
Websites don’t sell themselves. Open a new bricks-and-mortar shop in the middle of town and you’ll get a few passers-by popping in to see something they’ve never seen before, but if they don’t actively promote themselves, they’re likely to go out of business very soon.
The same is true with a website. Once a site is launched, and even before, active promotion is vital to its success.

Tips:
Make sure your marketing strategy promotes the website in advance of its launch. Have a pre-launch site on your domain, with incentives and calls to action, and actively get people to visit. An ISP’s default domain holding page is a marketing disaster.
Don’t spend all your budget on development and leave inadequate funds for marketing. Budget for a 50/50 split.
Consider investing in in-house training for web-marketing skills such as article-submission, blogging, etc.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that adding your domain name to your stationery is enough.
Remember off-line marketing will sometimes produce better results in some cases.

Poor usability

Poor usability is more important for new site because 100% of your visitors will be new to it. In the same way you wouldn’t litter your bricks-and-mortar shop with obstacles, don’t put any on your website, such as flash intros and unnecessary sign-up forms. Usability can be improved by in-house testing using friends and family, but you need to know what you’re looking for in a usability test. Colour appreciation isn’t one of them.

Tips:
Find out what people want from your site, that is the number one objective. Make sure the thing they want is easy to find. And I mean real easy.
Remember, people will find it easier to walk out of your web shop than your real shop.
Use your friends and family to help with usability testing. They are people, right?
Don’t ask them what they think of the site. They will judge it as a work of art. Ask them to do things, then ask them ‘was it easy’, ‘did you get stuck’, etc.

No confidence in your site

A site must exude success and fulfillment. People will stay on your site if they feel confident that you can supply what they need. And they will spend their money when they have that confidence. Customers will be less likely to spend if anything breaks their confidence.

Tips:
ALWAYS include information about your company under ‘About us’ and contact details including phone number if you are selling on your site. If you hide your phone number, what else are you hiding?
Make sure all your pages follow a consistent design and that buying pages don’t take you off to another site (trusted payment gateways excluded).
Include promises such as delivery within three days or price match. Confidence improves when promises are stated.

Somebody else does it better

Research your market. Somebody else may already be doing what you do. They may have already gained the confidence in their customer. Will their customers suddenly switch to you? Your service must be better, faster, cheaper than your competitors.

Tips:
Have a unique selling point, such as free delivery. If your competitors are not doing free delivery, they may switch.
Publish testimonials from satisfied cutomers. They are your best PR.
Brand your product with your name. When people search for the product they will search for your brand.