My friend an mentor Jim Edwards has done it again with a great post to his blog in which he identifies the “The Ten Web Site Commandments”.

I loved this post so much I’ve reprinted it in it’s entirety below.

“What makes a good web page?”

People ask me this all the time, though they often encounter
difficulty boiling the question down to so few words.

You, like any serious website operator, want to know how to
create and maintain the best possible website that nets you
the most sales and subscribers.

The following “commandments” represent the ideals towards
which every new or existing website should aspire.

1. Thou Shalt Have Purpose
- Clearly define the site’s purpose and ensure all content,
graphics, and text tightly focus on that purpose.

Discard all extraneous or distracting material and regularly
revisit your site to ensure all changes fit with the site’s
primary purpose.

2. Thou Shalt Be Lightweight
- Use only fast-loading graphics and other elements.

If you must use large graphics use thumbnails and image
slicing to diminish the size of every file to lessen load
times.

Though the majority of surfers now carry high-speed access,
avoid any content that requires the user to download
special, non-standard “plug-ins” to view your content.

3. Thou Shalt Load Fast
- Each and every entry page on your site should weigh in
under 50-100KB total, including graphics and navigation.

Interior pages can run larger, but the “front doors” to your
site should not make surfers wait long to start interacting
with the site.

4. Thou Shalt Not Use False Code
- You should only use html or asp to create your web pages.

Never use java, xml, dhtml or other forms of code that
require a surfer to keep their browser set up “correctly” to
accommodate your page.

Unless you sell to “geeks” and “techno-nerds,” this will
only lose you visitors and won’t make you any friends.

5. Thou Shalt Respect the Search Engines
- If you want search engine traffic use whole web pages that
don’t incorporate frames or large amounts of code unrelated
to your content.

Also, if you want search traffic, actively cultivate linking
relationships with related sites and operate a blog.

6. Love Thy Surfers and Visitors
- Design for “last year’s” technology so surfers using older
computers and slower connections can download your content
and use your site quickly and easily.

Designing for the “bleeding edge” will only cut into your
own profits.

7. Thou Shalt Not Annoy
- Use only stationary text and graphical layout elements.

No Scrolling text, marquees, or large Flash animations of
any kind, including those annoying, full-page Flash home
pages that say “Skip Intro.”

This “eye candy” rarely adds to a site’s main purpose and
often causes your visitors to miss something or leave in
frustration.

8. Thou Shalt Not Scroll Sideways
- Design your pages so they never force a visitor to scroll
left or right no matter what the resolution settings on
their monitor.

Sites that read “best viewed at 1024 x 768″ really say “look
at it my way because I don’t care about your preferences or
limitations.”

9. Thou Shalt Stay Consistent
- Include a standard navigational structure on every page.

Though it may mean a serious challenge for the designer,
users should only need to click once to find every major
section of a site.

This includes using standard link colors in all text links.
Blue: hyperlink; Purple: visited hyperlink; Red: active
hyperlink.

10. Thou Shalt Cultivate Subscribers
- Nothing floods your website with targeted traffic like
sending an email message to your loyal subscriber base.

Whether for a new product launch, affiliate product
endorsement, or holiday sale, that list represents your most
valuable online business asset.

Make sure your website actively cultivates subscribers by
giving them multiple opportunities to sign up and a
compelling reason or incentive to do so.

Then, make it worth their while to pay attention to you on a
regular basis.

Whether you’re a home-based business owner or CEO of a
billion-dollar e-business empire, these “commandments” will
guide you to eternal ecommerce happiness and prosperity.

““
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites”…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking “˜Mini’ Websites”… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!”

Click Here => MiniSite Creator
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

These “The Ten Web Site Commandments” are right on the money!

You would be amazed at how often I evaluate web sites which are breaking many of these commandments.

In fact… If all sites “repented of their evil ways” and followed Jim’s commandments I would be out of business!

So if your website is in low-conversion hell… Repent and see the light!

Eric

PS - This great article proves that Jim Edwards is not only wise when it comes to product creation, joint ventures and traffic generation… He’s also a master of traffic conversion! Something tells me we can expect some great conversion boosting wisdom to come from Jim in the not so distant future.

I don’t know… Just call it a hunch.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Affiliate Conversion, Building Trust, Conversion Rate Improvement, Copywriting, Online Marketing, Online Merchandising, Product Creation, Testing and Tracking, Traffic Quality, Web Analytics, Web Usability, Website Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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