The Ten Commandments for Building Business Websites

Ask any sample group of web gurus what makes for a great business website and you’re guaranteed hundreds of different answers. Conflicting information all over the web makes it very difficult to know what to trust, but by doing away with wild theories and plucking out only what’s been tried and tested, it becomes easy to establish a list of the most fundamentally important rules to follow.And here it is – the ten commandments for successful business websites built on the back of decades of trial, error and experience:    1 – Flash Isn’t Always FlashyCareful use of Flash is sort-of okay, but you should remember that largely no mobile devices currently doing the rounds support it. And for that matter, search engine crawlers tend to hate Flash too. The moral of the story being use it sparsely, or not at all if possible.2 – Limit PopupsThere’s much to be said for the kinds of ads and banners that expand when you hover the cursor over them, but popups are a different story altogether. If you decide to use popups for advertising or any other purposes, use them very sparingly or you’ll risk losing respect with readers.3 – Less is MoreHuge empty spaces are still not advisable, but even worse is the habit of crowding your pages with a ton of clutter just for the sake of it. It’s important to have only the stuff that’s needed in a logical order and with the most important content prioritized.4 – Clever Site Names Are Anything butAvoid the temptation to get too ‘clever’ with the name of your site – this applying to any site names that use weird spellings, numbers instead of letters and any unusual characters or symbols. The harder it is to type or the easier it is to get wrong, the most folk will do exactly that!5 – Limit Bandwidth Hungry ContentNever forget that not everyone visiting your site will be using the latest 4G mobile devices or have a fast Wi-Fi connection to play with. By appealing only to those with tons of bandwidth to spare, you shut out millions of others.6 – Social MattersYou need to make it as easy as possible for your site’s visitors to share, like or tweet what you have to say and your general site information – embedding social buttons therefore being crucial.7 – Keep Content FreshOnce a reader has been and seen everything your site has to say, what’s the point in them coming back time and time again? By contrast, keep things fresh by constantly adding new content…a blog is perfect for this…and you give them every reason to return on a regular basis.8 - The Right to ReplyIt doesn’t matter how you do it, but you must make sure there’s a place on your website for your readers to share their thoughts. From feedback forums to contact forms and right through to allowing comments to be posted on your blog, communication must always be two-way.9 – Solid Contact DetailsA business with a PO BOX address, a Gmail account or a single mobile phone number only will never look as professional or trustworthy as one with a full office address, multiple phone numbers and a private domain-specific email address.10 – Favour Content Above All ElseLast but not least, never lose sight of the fact that when it comes to SEO, brand building, conversions, overall reputation and pretty much anything else of value, nothing matters more than your site’s content. If there’s one area in which massive efforts need to be focused it’s on site content, which must be unique, relevant, current, engaging, professional, flawless and abundant.