According to Wikipedia – The Internet actually started in 1969, (yes, only 1969!), as the ARPANET, a Defense Department system designed to let survivors share files after a nuclear attack. From being available on just a handful of top secret computers, it’s grown to millions and millions of users.

And it’s still growing. According to a recent survey, the volume of Internet traffic is expected to double annually over the next five years. Consumers are expected to account for 70 percent of all Internet traffic over that period with the rest of the market made up of business users.

What does that mean for you?

It means customers—millions of them.

No other business tool can put the products you sell in front of so many people so easily. Nothing even comes close.

We’re talking about a potential market of over 1.5 billion people around the world who can buy your products 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If you opened a shop on your high street, how many people would walk past your window each month?
If you live in London, maybe a few thousand.
If you live in a smaller town, maybe a few hundred.
On the Internet, there’s no limit to the number of people you can bring through your shop front wherever you live.

The Internet has become a major medium for businesses. Recent studies indicate that worldwide e-commerce will generate £2.6 trillion in revenue by 2020 — a rise from £280 billion in 2010. IDC predicts that by that time, £1.2 trillion of B2B revenue will come from e-marketplaces.

Considering such staggering figures, it is absolutely vital for smaller and mid-size companies to not only have a presence on the Internet but also to attract customers to their websites. The competition is massive and I am going to show you how you can compete in the marketplace.

1.
Make your website attractive, interesting, engaging and interactive
To succeed at your online business (whether you are selling your own product/service or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate), you need a Web site created just for that – a simple, focused site. One that is easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.

Having the right tool and the right product alone doesn’t insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered while designing a site. Unfortunately, most of these are easily ignored by Internet business owners.

Build It for Speed – It’s a fact of modern life – people are in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer’s attention. To minimise your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

2.
Target your Market
Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

3.
Focus the Site
Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.

4.
Credibility Is Crucial
The most professionally designed site won’t sell if your customers don’t believe in you. A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line.

5.
Navigation should be simple
Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

6.Consistency is the key
Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

7.
Make your site interactive and personalised
Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product. Personalisation of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalisation technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.
8.
Content is King
Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

9.
The Navigation
The aim of a web site’s navigation is simply to allow users to get to the content they require. For sites that have a large number of sections and web pages (and information sites can be one of these) the navigation plan has to be properly researched and designed. You have to consider different types of visitors and simulate the most common steps they would take to find what they want on your site and the navigation plan has to optimise this movement. For example the steps required from searching a catalogue of items, selecting from the catalogue, adding them to a shopping cart, proceeding to check out, to entering the payment particulars is a specific sequence that should be facilitated by the navigation system. If the sequence is haphazard, it could lead to frustration or the user may miss an important step and you would have an aborted sale.
To find their way about, users need to know two things:

Where they are now
How to go elsewhere

Navigation does not exist in isolation; good site organisation is a prerequisite for a coherent navigation system.
10.
Navigation Controls
Navigation controls are the main navigation links; they allow users to move around the site. Whether they comprise images or text they should be predictably located in the same place, and with the same appearance, on each page.

11.
Usability
There is no mystery to usability. It simply involves creating a site, which is accessible to the majority of people, is easy to use and get around and delivers on its promises. You can have a site that meets the most important standards of usability by planning it well and always keeping the end user in mind. Remember that web sites should not be designed for their owners – they should be designed for their users.

Problems with usability could be said to stem from just two sources: the site itself and the user. In fact the site is always at fault; if a user, however experienced or inexperienced, has problems navigating, getting information or understanding the site.

While websites have become far more complex, web users have become less rather than more experienced as more and more people go online. It is a mistake to think that the majority of users will be web or even computer savvy and will understand subtle clues about content. Most will not.

12.

Defining a Usable Site

A usable site will:

  • Help users achieve a goal, usually to find something, such as information, or obtain something,
    such as a book.
  • Make it easy for them to achieve that goal
  • Make it possible to achieve the goal quickly
  • Make achieving that goal a pleasant experience

A site will be generally usable if:

  • The content is good and relevant
  • The content is easy to find
  • The content can be found quickly
  • The page is pleasant to look at and cleanly designed

Usability Problems

While for large commercial sites investment in full-scale usability studies may be not just useful but essential but few small sites can afford such luxuries.

However, identifying problems with usability for your site need be no more complicated than asking a few (honest) friends to act as guinea pigs on your site and, if possible, watching them silently as they do this. Watching users try to find information at your site can be both instructive and quite surprising.

Remember that if at any stage you feel the urge to intervene and explain, then you have identified a usability problem.

Pat Sutton is the author of Internet Marketing and Personal Development Blog, http://www.patsutton.com