By Bill Treloar

You'd think that spending thousands of dollars to get your web site up and running would mean customers would be able to find you, navigate your site easily and purchase with as little hassle as possible. Yet that's not the case for most small commercial sites. Most people would laugh at the idea of putting up barriers in front of a drive-thru window or locating a business in a place that can't be found, but many commercial Internet sites suffer from these problems and many more. How can you tell if your site is living up to its performance-potential? Take this short quiz and see how your site rates.

The Web Site Performance-Potential Quiz

1. Take advantage of all revenue opportunities at your site. Use lots of banner ads, buttons, a jazzy color scheme and lots of product come-ons.
True or False

2. Multimedia effects help make sales. It's important to stay on the cutting edge, so keep your site updated with the latest technology. True or False

3. Don't use a detailed background image or lots of photos. Keep sound to a minimum. True or False

4. Get your site linked from as many others as possible. True or False

5. Don't rely on your brand name for product identification. Mention your products in the most generic terms as much as possible. True or False

The Answers for Maximizing Performance-Potential

1. False. If you take advantage of all revenue opportunities, your site is probably too busy. Customers quickly get "site overload" and tune-out or click off if they don't see what they're looking for. Too many things that vie for attention create confusion. Keep the site attractive, but relatively simple.

2. False. Multimedia effects have the most effect on children and young adults; depending on your market they may hurt you more than help you. Also, many users don't have the latest software to view all that cool multimedia.

3. True. The more complex your graphics and sound, the longer it takes to load your page. In this age of instant gratification, most people won't wait more than about 30 seconds before they go on to another site. No matter what you see on TV, remember that most customers are still connecting with 56K modems over standard phone lines.

4. True. But keep a list of all of those sites, and test their links to you regularly. If your site changes, links to you may be out of date. Nothing turns a customer away faster than a "page cannot be found" message.

5. True. Search engines rely heavily on keyword frequency when ranking your site. You can increase your number of hits by increasing the number of times you mention the type of product or service you offer. Reliance on your brand name (unless it is a household word) can cost you customers.

How did your site score? Don't feel bad if it wasn't perfect: just use the information to improve your site. Internet technology is a wonderful thing and it can increase the bottom line for your business. But it's easy to be tempted by all the bells and whistles that techies love and many customers hate. There are many ways to improve the performance of your web site with a little business sense and the right Internet marketing advice.

Credit:
Bill Treloar is president of Rank Magic in East Hanover, NJ, a consulting firm specializing in making Internet marketing and search engine placement more efficient and cost effective. (973) 887-0778 or http://www.RankMagic.com