Improve your Web site in five easy steps

If your Web site isn't giving you the results you want, it's time you got a return on your investment. Improve your Web site with these five easy steps and you'll dramatically increase your Web site's value and make it a company asset.

« Look at your Web site statistics. Your hosting company should have these easily available for you to review and analyze. Find out on which page people are spending the most time; conversely, determine which pages aren't holding their attention. Why? Is the page downloading slowly? A page that's slow to download is the most common reason for your Web site to fail to live up to expectations. Test its download time with any free tool on the Internet and find out how long it takes for the page to load on a modem connection. Almost half of U.S. Internet users are still connecting with a modem instead of high speed. Most people will bail out if your home page doesn't load within 8-10 seconds.

« Whatever problem you uncovered in step one must be fixed now. If the problem wasn't a slowly downloading page, perhaps it was one or more of the following: a cluttered home page with no place to rest your eyes; confusing navigation (people don't know where to click first); too much text ("less is more..."); or some other problem usually relating to poor information architecture and poor design.

« Remember in step one, I told you to find out which page people are spending the most time on? Examine that page and figure out why people are spending a lot of time there. This could be a negative thing or a positive thing -- either people can't figure out how to do something and it's taking a long time or they're gathering valuable information that you've provided -- which is a good thing. If they can't figure out how to do something like make a purchase, go to the contact form and submit it, or whatever it is you want them to do -- fix the problem and make it as simple as possible for them to do it. Then review your statistics again and see if the traffic has increased. Perhaps you've received more leads or purchases since you improved that page, which is also a good barometer.

« Search by keywords for your Web site in Google, Yahoo and MSN (the three most popular search engines). Use keywords that your visitors would use. Does your Web site show up within the first two pages of the natural results? If not, consult with a Search Engine Optimization firm -- one that follows search engine rules/guidelines -- and figure out a strategy to make your Web site land higher in the search results.

«Go back to step one. Continually review your Web site statistics so you can keep improving and fine-tuning how your Web site works. Just like any piece of machinery, it'll operate more smoothly and you'll get better performance from it if you keep fine-tuning it.

Lori Gama-White is president/CEO of DaGama Web Studio in Greeley. For more information, questions or comments, call 378-7822 or e-mail at Lori@dagamawebstudio.com.