Many small businesses choose to set up shop in the online world with a Web site name or URL on Geocities, Angelfire, Tripod or MSN, rather than having their own Web address. Which company would you feel more comfortable buying from — www.members.tripod.com/loudinismagicshop or www.loudini,com? (The latter is a real Web site, specializing in magic accessories.) I don't thi... Read More
Many small-business Web sites load far too slowly. We've checked out small-business Web sites that it took more than five minutes to load one web page. Most sites aren't that bad, but if your Web pages take more than 20 seconds to load over a modem, you run the risk of losing visitors to your site. Photos and graphics with large file sizes are usually the problem when a page loads slowly.
Read MoreYou wouldn't send out a marketing brochure that's all words and no pictures. So why do so many companies create Web pages without graphics or photos of any sort? If a single picture paints a thousand words, use a judicious number of them on your Web site to communicate volumes.
Read MoreWe are floored by how many small-business Web sites are here today, gone tomorrow, and back again next Tuesday. It may sound obvious to say that it's incredibly important that your Web site is up and running when customers go looking for it, but the disappearing act is a mistake that many small businesses make. How to make sure your site is up?
Read MoreFor some reason, many small-business Web sites use busy background wallpaper. You'll find gray embossed company logos, wild patterns and other distracting background designs on many small-business sites. People think the designs add interest and panache to the sites, but all it does is interfere with the messages.
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