Don't Suck in 2010

It is a new year and let's make it a year of no websites sucking!

What does that mean? It seems obvious, yet we tend to spend our time trying to solve more complicated problems and forget that the number one goal of every website is not to suck. Especially at the real simple things.

The owners of a website were extolling the creativeness and virtues of their website of which they probably spent some good hard cash to develop. A visit to their site reveals that it is a 100% flash website, with very small font size, where it took too much looking to click on anything and then too much scrolling to read anything. Calls to action were either unclear or non existent. People ask to take a look at the site (because it is not working for them) and the only comment that I can make is that "it is pretty". That is sucking!

What do you do? Take a look at the top 5 or ten pages of your website and ask one question of each page: "What the heck are we trying to do with each page?" This may take some time and heartache but you must do it. Make sure there is a clear answer and there is a connection between why a customer would come to a page and why the page exists. A match!! Customer intent=Web page purpose.

Avoid flash sites. There are over 2 million flash designers out there just champing at the bit to create, and I mean create, great looking websites for people. It seems that the only reason for their existence is to be pretty, load slow with a dancing bear to entertain us upon entrance.

Get a clear understanding of what drove customers to a page. You cannot do this without objective data contained within tools like Google Analytics.

Make clear calls to action. Identify the one or two jobs that your web page is suppose to do and do it. White space is your friend. You do not need to fill up all the real estate. Lead people through you website until they do what it is you want them to do.

Make the navigation works. This seems simple but many times the links do not work, and the descriptions, although familiar to the web owner, make little sense to the web visitor (customer).

Ask you visitors how to improve your webpage.

If you think your webpage sucks then get to work or we will be here next year talking about the same topic. Insanity.