Gearing Up Your Site For Mega Traffic
If you arrived at a hotel, and found that the room you'd been given had not been cleaned since the last visitor stayed in it, the decor was drab, you couldn't turn the radio off, and the water was leaking, would you stay in that hotel ever again? Probably not. In fact, you'd probably leave the hotel in disgust.
The question is: do we treat our website visitors like that? Or do we give them a pleasant and comfortable stay at our website, which makes them want to return?
This article is the first chapter of the book simply because, before you can have mega traffic to your website, you must be able to accommodate your visitors and make their stay at your site a pleasant one. This article will focus on some of the common mistakes website owners make, and how to avoid them.
[1] Download time - keep it under 20 seconds!
We have not yet reached the time when everyone can access the Internet at lightening speed - the majority of us are still using modems ranging in speed from 28k to 56k. This means that your super-cool website filled with the latest Shockwave plug-in graphics, Java applets and huge flashing graphics, may take so long to load into the visitor's browser that they simply lose patience with your site and surf elsewhere. Remember that Internet users are an impatient lot who demand results now (and I include myself in this description!). Generally speaking, if your page takes longer than 20 seconds to download using a typical 56k speed connection, it's too long and you will lose many visitors who are too impatient to wait.
Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule, and if you do have to have a page that takes a long time to download, make sure you warn the visitor by having a message right at the top of your page, something like: "Please be patient as this page may take a while to download."
[2] A splash page - is it necessary?
I have seen many sites whose front page consists of a flashy graphic, and a link which says "Click here to enter". This is called a splash page. In theory, splash pages are said to make web sites look professional, but in practice, they may be losing you visitors. Remember I said that surfers are an impatient lot? Well, it's true. Studies have shown that you could be losing 20% of your visitors who couldn't be bothered to click past your splash page. Ask yourself whether that splash page is essential, and if it isn't, you may be better off leaving it out.
[3] Java..Flash, Shock...kersplat!
You may have heard of Flash and Shockwave - these are called browser plug-ins and they are basically programs that, when added to your browser, allows your site to do all kinds of weird and wonderful things with graphics. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't use these plug-ins - I have seen some really great stuff that takes advantage of these programs. However, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind before deciding to use them. Firstly, not everyone has Shockwave or Flash installed in their browser, so if a part of your site depends on them having the right plug-in, the visitor will simply not see your artwork! Second, graphics made with these browser plug-ins usually take longer to load. Will your visitors wait? Finally, some plug-ins actually freeze the browser altogether while they load. This can be annoying to your visitors, and so my advice is to give them fair warning before you unleash your flashy graphics onto them. The same applies to Java. Java is a programming language which can make websites do some clever stuff. Java code comes in little packages called applets. Unfortunately, while Java applets are loading, many browsers freeze up ... again, a possible annoyance to your visitors. These are just some things to bear in mind while designing your site.
[4] MIDI mayhem
This happens a lot on personal pages - I go to a site, the browser then freezes up while it loads a plug-in that plays music, and then next moment my speakers are playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Fortunately I happen to like the Moonlight Sonata ... but that is not the point. Would this be appropriate for a business website? The answer is that "I don't know". I have read of one expert who took off the music from his site and saw sales from his site drop by 20%! I guess it depends on what you're selling and the type of music that was playing .. after all, it works for supermarkets! However, please bear in mind that music can slow down your site, and those people who are surfing your site at work may well get a surprise when the whole office hears the Moonlight Sonata belting out of their speakers!
[5] To frame, or not to frame
Should you use frames for your site? In previous years, the arguments against frames were that broswers couldn't support them and search engines (see [03]) didn't index pages with frames. Today, well over 95% of people are using browsers that support frames, and search engines have become a lot more sophisticated, meaning that frames are much less of a problem. Nevertheless, if you are going to use frames, make sure you know how to use them properly.
[6] Track your visitors
This is a vital part of Internet marketing and one we will discuss again later in this e-book. Once visitors to your site come streaming in, it is essential that you know where they are coming from, so you can channel your marketing efforts into the areas that bring the best results. Tracking your visitors means much more than a simple counter on your site - all that tells you is how many people have visited your site. However, you need to know where these people have come from, and which pages in your site they visited. If your Web host cannot provide these statistics for you, you can use a great facility called Extreme Tracking.
