Key Elements of a Working Website

Your website speaks literally speaks volumes about your home business. If your current bounce rate is high, study these four elements then take another look at your website through fresh eyes.

1. The appearance of your website should be clean and consistent.

That means no flashing images, few small graphics, and colors that blend together.

Unless you have a children’s game site, you should avoid blinking images. Use graphics only where necessary and keep them small so that your pages load quickly. Colors can contrast or blend, but usually muted colors are less distracting.

The same banner and navigation features should appear on every page.

2. Your content should be easy to read.

While “content is king” internet surfers want quick solutions to their pressing problems. Make sure you keep your paragraphs short. Numbering and bullets help draw the reader’s eye down your page. Subheads also keep the reader’s eye moving.

Keep your page background pale, preferably white, and your font easy-to-read.

Fonts and headlines should be consistent from one page to the next.

Incorporate keywords into your text, but read your article aloud to be certain it makes sense. Sometimes “keyword stuffing” leads to awkward or senseless sentences.

3. Simplify site navigation.

Generally you have a navigation bar on each page that can take a reader to the top page of major categories on your website. But add linked text within your content, too.

Not only does internal linking help your visitor locate additional information on the subject he is researching, but it helps the search engines understand how the pages on your website fit together.

The anchor text of each link should relate to the primary keyword of its destination. These often appear within the text but may also appear at the end of an article.

Correct use of anchor text: Learn more about starting a home business.

Incorrect use of anchor text: To learn more about starting a home business, click here.

“Click here” is not a keyword!

One last word on site navigation: your visitor should be able to locate the information he is seeking in no more than three clicks.

4. Your pages should load quickly.

By sticking with a simple appearance and a limited number of small, properly tagged graphics, your pages should load fast.

If you have a lot to say on a subject, break the document into smaller chunks on multiple linked pages.

Here’s a tool you can use that will let you figure out page weight or size of any page on your site. Page size should never exceed 64K. Professional website builders recommend a far smaller page – 15K to 25K!

Still Uncertain Why Your Bounce Rate is High?

Use 4Q website survey to learn from your website visitors why they came to your site and if they found what they were looking for. It's free.