Designing Your Website

7. Two-way Connections

7.1 Make sure your site can be found easily.

• If you had to guess your company's web address, what would your first guess be? That or your product's generic name is the domain name you should register.
• Keep the name short. If you have two words, people must guess if they are separated by a dot, a hyphen or an underscore. Consider simply running them together.
• Ensure the right keywords to help search engines find you are embedded in your site's page titles and 'meta tags'.
• Consider linking to social networking websites such as Facebook or Twitter, where web visitors can follow updates about your firm.

7.2 .2 Links bring you visitors, but can also lead people away from your site.

• Include links to related sites, in return for links to yours.
• Keep tempting links off your home page. These links are better placed deeper into your site, when you have had a chance to put your main messages across.
• You can set up links so that they open in a new window and do not take the visitor away from your page.
• Once customers are into the 'buy' process, do not distract them with links to other sites, or other areas of your site.

7.3 Make it easy for customers to contact you.

• Every email you receive is a warm lead. Make sure it is obvious how customers can get in touch with you and respond to enquiries quickly.

7.4 Involve visitors to your site in doing something, rather than just looking.

• Set up a discussion forum and encourage customers to exchange tips and advice. There are several free packages available, although they may take time to set up.
• Include a survey. Customers like being asked for their opinions and you can gain some genuinely useful feedback.