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Diary of a Webmaster Part 1 - My Site Design Checklist
#8: Tell visitors who you are and what you do
This is probably the simplest tip to implement. When a new visitor comes to your site for the first time, they want to know who you are and what you do straight up, especially if you sell products.
On your home page, you should have a small paragraph that tells them exactly who you are and what you do. This will increase their confidence in your company and if you have what they're after then there's a better chance that they'll stick around. Here's an example for a fictional site, Fred-Smith-Tools.com, which sells gardening tools:
"Hi, thanks for stopping by Fred-Smith-Tools.com. We're based in Los Angeles, USA and sell a wide range of gardening tools including spades, pruning tools, clippers, spray guns and shovels. Please scroll down this page to take a look at our list of daily specials!"
#9: Use customer testimonials
A customer testimonial is simply a comment from one of your site's visitors that includes some positive details of their dealings with your organization, such as:
"I found your site last week from Google.com and I must say, I'm really impressed with its layout and your HUGE range of products. I ordered a CD from your on Thursday and it arrived right at my door the next day. If only there were more sites like yours on the Net. Great work!"
By displaying customer testimonials on your site, visitors can see that other people have used your site or products, and found them to be useful and valuable. Customer testimonials are also one of the best ways to increase visitor confidence in your business.
To display customer testimonials on your site, add a link to your menu system named "Customer Testimonials". Link this to a page where you display all the testimonials you've received from your customers. Or display the testimonials in a sidebar, which links to the page that lists them all. To actually collect testimonials, either ask some of your customers for them directly, or set up a feed back form on your site.
#10: Provide contact details on every page
One of the main sources of frustration for many Web surfers is the lack of contact details on many sites. If you run a Website that sells products, then many of your potential customers might prefer placing a phone order to ordering on the Internet. So be sure to display either a sales email address, or the phone number for your sales hotline, in the top right hand corner of every page.
The Complete Checklist
If you're a Web developer, then try to check off these tips as you prototype each and every site you design -- but keep in mind that these pointers are just as easily applied to existing sites.
No doubt as you design more Websites over time, you'll come up with a list of your own design tips and guidelines. Use them whenever you can, and share them with newbie Web developers so they don't make the same mistakes that you may have!