Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com
  HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html

5 Sure Fire Ways To Send Visitors Away For Good
by Mike Cheney ©Copyright 2004

So your traffic is going through the roof yeah? It's all 
becoming a bit too much? You're getting lots of sales enquiries 
through your website every day? You want to send visitors away 
from your site for good? Just follow these five Sure Fire Ways 
and your site will be a tumbleweed ghost town in no time. 

Way No. 1 - Clog Up Their Internet Connection

Imagine it. They're happily surfing around on Google looking 
for your 'widget' and everything's going smoothly. Your website 
appears in the first page listings (congratulations you must 
have employed magnet4web or another highly-esteemed website 
marketing company!) and they click through to you. Then their 
internet connection starts to clog up. It is positively groaning 
and creaking under the strain of downloading your homepage which 
has so many images it takes over 30 seconds to appear. They look 
at the progress bar at the bottom of their screen. It reads 
'20%'. They look at their watch and then click on the little 'X' 
at the top right of their screen. Well done - you've just sent 
away a visitor - for good. 

Way No. 2 - 'I am not a Number - I am a free Man'

Along come some more visitors. They lick their lips in 
anticipation of viewing your widgets which they are very 
interested in buying - they have their credit card handy. 

They land on your homepage and all is well, at first. "The 
benefits of choosing Widgets Inc. are as follows..." Your 
homepage is laden with customer-focused benefits and selling 
points - excellent. But wait a minute. What's that at the bottom 
of the page? It's not what I think it is, is it? Oh dear, there 
in black and white is one of the fundamental no-nos in web 
design that is guaranteed to send the message "This website was 
built by my dog": 

"Welcome - you are visitor number 102" 

Regardless of the number (and let's face it 80% are either you 
or your family!) you will be sending away people in droves. Well 
done - your site is becoming less busy by the day. Let's move on 
to way number three.. 

Way No. 3 - "Help me Buy from You - Please..."

They're lost. You have built the site around what seems a 
logical approach but your visitors are lost. You've given 
most prominence to testimonials but they just want to send you 
an email. They click on three, four and sometimes five pages but 
can't find your phone number or email address anywhere. But it's 
okay - of course they have a spare quarter of an hour to hunt 
through your website (that doesn't have a site map) to find your 
contact details when they already have another window open with 
your competitor's website - complete with email address, phone 
number, fax number, street address, mobile number, map and GPS 
coordinates.. 

Yes - you've guessed it - you're one step closer to that 
ghost-town.. 

Way No. 4 - 'Please Let Me Watch Intro'

Yes, admit it - you once thought the best thing on the planet 
was a website that started up by having a revolving animation 
of the company logo that exploded, spin round a bit to an 80s 
sounding techno tune and then re-constitute itself in the centre 
of the screen with the immortal words: 

"Click here to enter site" 

Strange that - "enter site". That's what all your visitors were 
trying to do when they typed in your web address or clicked on 
your link but instead they were faced with Jean Michelle Jarre 
and some possessed bit of code that replicated the effect of 
someone regurgitating your business' corporate identity over the 
screen. Nice. Flash intro = trash intro. Use em (the intros) and 
lose em (the visitors). 

Way No. 5 -"I am five years' old - I like things that flash"

One day in the future a law will be passed that will make it 
illegal to use scrolling text, flashing images, rotating heads, 
animated animals and bouncing cursors on a website. Your website 
is here to do business. It is supposed to be a serious tool in 
your marketing armoury. It should be used to convey useful 
information to your visitors and convince them that you are 
worth doing business with. Dress it up with flashing icons, 
swirling graphics, flashing logos and spinning pictures and the 
merry-go of visual delights will just make your visitors sick. 
They will leave your glitzy fairground never to return.

Mike Cheney
www.magnet4web.com

================================================================
You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a Free 
Bonus Special Report "How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer 
Magnet" worth a value of £47 ($85) here: 
http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide
================================================================

Copyright © 2004 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

SiteProNews is a registered service mark of Jayde Online, Inc.