20 seconds is all you have to capture your reader or potential customer putting pressure on you to ensure that your first impression counts.

 

Your website should be welcoming and inviting for your visitors, no cold link, dead ends and images that don't display properly. You need to feed your visitor a little bit of information and entice them engage for more.

 

Just like getting a mouse to take the bait!

 

Setting the bait is in your website design

 

The bait (your home page) really comes down to your website design, it needs to be approachable without obstacles. This can be done effectively with a simple and user friendly environment. We achieve this by using either familiar headings that your users will understand or a layout that is intuitive for the user. Making sure your website design flows freely and makes engages the customer are also critical elements. 

 

Be direct to your visitors, tell them who you are and what you can do for them. Tell them where they need to do through engagement. Don't assume they will just pick up the phone and call you. 

 

Ensure that your website will comply for users with a disability, especially if a majoirty of your customers will struggle read red text on a black background.

 

Creating options to enlarge website font is a good choice if your targeting an audience with poor vision. Again simple tools and steps will eliminate a particular group from leaving your site potentially losing sales.

 

Trusting the website design

 

Ensure your website design is creditable, do you have testimonials or accreditation logos you can add? Have you made the right impression? Do you have the right language? A society with a population of 30% mandarin speaking means your English written only website probably won't be viewed by 30% of the population.

 

Checking the baits use by date

 

Make sure you have some dynamic and up to date content. A simple news page showing recent news and activity is a good way to show customers you are current. There is nothing worse when you're tempted to buy something then realise that the website has not been updated in two years. Then you wonder "Are they still running?"

 

Last but not least avoid intro pages that are so 1999. Flash and animated intros don't get to the point; most people look how they can skip it. They take longer to load up and with mobile phones being a common source of internet access, flash intro websites can't be viewed.