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Ready to launch your online business?
©Judy Vorfeld
Are you ready for your grand opening? If you've spent lots of time studying
what works and what doesn't, in terms of customer expectations and search
engine essentials: go for it! Before you launch, however, why not go over
your check list one more time?
DOMAIN NAME
You bought your own domain name and have a good Web hosting service. You've
made it as easy as possible for people to relate the domain name to your
business. If you couldn't get the domain name you wanted, you'll brand
your business so people will have some point of reference.
TEXT
Your site has readable text. You avoided dark text on a black background;
too small a font size; big blobs of bolded text; bulky paragraphs; underlined
text that is not actually hyperlinked; and putting the text too close
to the edge of a box or table cell. You don't have unusually wide lines
of text, strange fonts for your body text, or too many italics. You made
sure that link text can be read, easily, when it's on top of any block
of color.
GRAMMAR
You have excellent punctuation, spelling, and usage. Your words clearly
define the reason for your site, and you worked hard to create powerful
sentences and headings. You use "its" when it means possession,
and "it's" when it means "it is" or "it has."
You use "their" when it means possession; "they're"
when it means "they are"; and "there" when it means
"in (or at) that place." And you capitalize the proper noun,
"Internet."
CONTACT INFORMATION
You offer clear contact information, including a mailing address. You've
placed your business name, address, and phone and fax numbers, plus your
e-mail address, at the bottom of every page.
GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION
Aware that you have just a few seconds to hook visitors into remaining
on your site, you optimized all your graphics so they load quickly. You've
visited enough sites to know that graphics must enhance, not overpower,
both visually and in terms of loading time. You avoided animation, knowing
that it detracts from the text. And you--wonderful you--didn't use the
dreaded marquee feature and scrolling status bar text!
A FLASHY SITE
You may use Flash in your design, but very carefully. You've visited many
Flash-based sites where loading time was excessive, and you left, never
to return. Plus, all-Flash sites hold no interest for most search engines.
MISPLACED HUMOR
You have a terrific sense of humor, but you avoided trying to be cute
or clever by using phrases like, "heh heh" or "hee hee"
on your site. Best of all, you didn't use ONE smiley emoticon! :)
ABOUT YOU
While you didn't give your life history, you revealed who you are and
why you have your online business. You want potential customers to know
that you have a legitimate business and hope to build a long-term relationship
of trust and respect.
PRIVACY POLICY
In line with building trust and respect, you offer a good privacy policy.
NAVIGATION AND SITE ORGANIZATION
Visitors can move seamlessly from one page to another on your site, because
you sat down and effectively organized your site's hierarchy . . . um,
make that "outline" or "directory." You also put text
links of your most important pages at the bottom of each page. And since
some pages are necessarily long, you inserted "top" anchors
and "top of page" hyperlinks for ease of navigation.
BARRIERS: CALLING OUT THE RESOLUTION, BROWSERS, & PLUG-INS
Way to go! You avoided telling visitors what browser, resolution, and
plug-ins they must (or should) use. Instead, you designed for the widest
possible audience, using at least three major browsers for testing; checked
your pages using a good site validation program; and fixed what didn't
work. During this phase, you asked several people to test your site, including
some who use AOL, WebTV and a Mac. And you get a gold star for not using
an "under construction" graphic on unfinished pages.
CONCLUSION
Lots of people upload unfinished business sites, and then scamper around
the Web applying for every possible award. Do you wonder why? Some hope
they'll get free ideas for site improvement. Others hope to impress their
visitors with their lists of awards. But you decided to put the horse
before the cart. You worked hard, had a good checklist, tested carefully,
and are ready to open for business.
Sure, you'll make changes. Every website is constantly under construction.
You plan to study those professionals offering solid advice for online
businesses, or hire someone who can do that for you. Or both. You stand
out, because you offered the best you had at the beginning, rather than
opening with a weak, skeleton-like framework that you'll fill in when
you find the time. Congratulations!
Now get out there and network. Locally and on the Internet. Let others
get to know you and your business.
About the author
Judy Vorfeld's operating system is Windows and her primary software
includes WordPerfect; Microsoft Word; Microsoft Publisher; Adobe Acrobat;
PaintShopPro; and Macromedia HomeSite. Please visit her website: http://www.ossweb.com |
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