Credibility While a professional looking site is recommended, the site will not sell well if your customers don't believe your business is not credible. One way to build your credibility is through a clear privacy statement. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site and especially from any page where you are asking your visitors for personal information. Another way to convey credibility and integrity is to provide legitimate contact information. Every website that offers something for sale should have contact info. The more forms of contact you give, the more credible you will seem in the eyes of your prospective customer. This contact info should include an email address or contact form, a mailing address, and a telephone number. While a telephone number is not absolutely necessary for all business websites, having one displayed certainly cannot hurt your credibility.
Simple navigation Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Smooth and simple navigation adds convenience for your visitors and is absolutely necessary. Every single page should have a navigation menu and that menu should be in the same exact position on ever single page. Also, if you have a large catalog of products, then you should also add a powerful search feature. Many times your visitors do not have the patience or time to navigate through the whole website to find the products they came to buy. These visitors will most likely want to use a search function. If you don't have one, they will leave. Likewise, if your search function is not powerful enough to find many of your products even though you carry them on your site, they will leave because they will think you don't have it. They will most likely move on to another site that does have the item they are looking for rather than browse through your whole site just to find that one product.
Consistency
Your site must be consistent in design and look and feel. It is usually visually unappealing and disturbing to a customer to navigate through a site that is not consistent because it feels and looks like as if they have just gone to a whole new site with every page they visit. Keep themes and colors constant throughout the whole site. An exception to this might be if you have a large catalog of products grouped into categories. In this case, it would be O.K. to have each category use a different base color. But only do so with discretion and keep your visitors' visual well-being in mind.
Interactivity and personalization Make your website interactive by adding feedback forms and email forms (also known as contact forms) that allow your visitors to ask you any questions they might have about a product in which they are interested. Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. Personalization can give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell. For example, when a person buys a widget, a complimentary product like a widget cleaner can also be offered as an upsell to that customer.
Content Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar. this is another aspect that many online entrepreneurs seem to overlook. They think that spelling and grammar should be left to teachers and professors. that mentality will not only make you look uneducated but will most likely reduce, if not, kill your sales altogether.
1.2 Navigation
To find their way around your site, your visitors need to know two main things:
1. Where they are right now
2. How to get somewhere else within the site.
There are 2 primary types of navigation: Location indicators and Navigation controls.
