Designing an internet business is important and it entails far more than just creating a website and promoting products or services.  If you look around, you will find hundreds of websites that do nothing to retain their visitors’ interest, making them leave.

While the look of the website and the products/services that deliver value is important, it is also important for your site to communicate that value effectively.

Here are some essentials that will spell the difference between success and failure of your online business:

Professional Website Design

Here I’m not talking about using flash or other visual effects that will slow down the loading of your web pages.  Your website needs to be considered genuine, and people should get a feeling that there is a concerned individual behind the site who cares enough for the visitors to ensure the website is presented well.

The website should be designed using appropriate colors and graphics that blend well together. The content on the site should be professional with useful information and without grammatical errors or typos, which reflect the carelessness of the webmaster. Images should only be used where necessary and should not distract the visitors from the main purpose of their visit.

Sales Page

This is where you are actually selling to your visitors.  You will have to list all the good things that your product offers; the money that can be saved, the money they can make, how it offers more freedom or security for them and their families, the time saved, the convenience factor etc.

In this section, give your visitors what they want and the way they want it, which is enough to get them to buy from you.

Easy Navigation

Navigation is very important as it allows visitors to go from page to page on your website with ease.  All the internal pages should be connected to the home page.  Your visitors should be able to find all the different sections of your site with a glance.  Ensuring that the navigation is similar in all the pages helps visitors.

Index Page

This page should tell your visitors everything about your product or services.  They should be given a clear picture of the purpose of your site.  If needed, you can add images of the products to make things clearer.

Logo

While many people may not pay attention to this aspect of a website design, it reflects professionalism.  You can add that “trust” factor with a good business logo design.  Just make sure the logo goes well with the color and theme of your website.

FAQ

This is important to be able to answer any questions your visitors may have; especially so if you are selling products. You can add every question that may not have been cleared in the main sales page.  This helps increase sales as your visitors will find all their questions answered and take a decision for the purchase.

Opt-Ins

“The money is in the list!”  These oft spoken wise words are the result of many an experienced marketer’s research that revealed the importance of building a list of email prospects.  Collecting the emails of your visitors will help you sell easily in the future, by contacting them.  The subscription area should be clearly shown on the web page, and it does help with getting more opt-ins if you offer an incentive of some sort.

Contact Us

The “Contact Us” page helps maintain a close relationship with your visitors. If there are any questions your visitors want answered, they have the option to contact you.  You will be able to reinforce the fact that the person behind the site actually cares for the visitors.  But make sure to respond as early and as clearly as possible when you receive a query.

Privacy Policy

Every visitor making a purchase online needs to either give their credit card details or other personal details, which can be actually scary for them because of the nature of the internet.  This page gives them the assurance that their information will only be used for the intended purpose and nothing else.

About Us

It helps to reveal a little information about yourself and the intention of your online business.  This is a psychological trigger that gives your visitors the confidence to deal with you.

Refund Policy

Sometimes, after buying the product or service, your customers may not be happy and ask for a refund or return.  You will have to make this clear in this section. Even if refunds and returns are not allowed, you will have to let them know.

Seeing real success is possible if you ensure you do things right; and these are just small things that need to be taken care of when designing your website.

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