Most visitors will
spend only a few seconds on each page. Only a minority will look
in detail - they include your best prospects and your
competitors. So page design needs to more like a poster
than a brochure.
The navigation structure
Visitors need to be able to find
quickly all the information they want - otherwise they will look
for your competition.
Time to access each page
Don't make a visitor wait.
Impact of brand image, credibility of supplier
The site
must look professional and give confidence to the potential
customer. Remember most visitors are not interested in the
supplier until they have already half made a selection.
Any page not optimised for search engines is an
opportunity wasted to attract new customers.
Use of any programming technology beyond standard HTML
Sites with a lot of content that needs regular updating will
normally need to be connected to a database and use 'dynamic'
pages. Your web designer must ensure such pages are visible to
search engines. Other technologies, like javascript, may
look nice but be inaccessible to search engines.
Ease of updating
The more often your site is refreshed
with new content, the more interesting it is for repeat visitors
and search engines. Plan in advance how you are going to update
most easily at least cost.
