Specifications

Regardless of the size of your company, make sure that your Web site is of a high standard.
Text should be written and proofread by somebody with a very good grasp of the language
being used. Graphics should be clean, clear, and fast to download. On a business site, you
should carefully consider your use of graphics and color, and make sure that they fit the image
you would like to present. Use animation and sound carefully if at all.
Although you will not be able make your site look the same on all machines, operating sys-
tems, and browsers, make sure that it is viewable and does not give errors to the vast majority
of users.
Not Answering Feedback Generated by the Web Site
Good customer service is just as vital in attracting and retaining customers on the Web as it is
in the outside world. Large and small companies are guilty of putting an email address on a
Web page, and then neglecting to check or answer that mail promptly.
People have different expectations of response times to email than to postal mail. If you do not
check and respond to mail daily, people will believe that their inquiry is not important to you.
Email addresses on Web pages should usually be generic, addressed to job title or department,
rather than a specific person. What will happen to mail sent to
[e-mail] when
Fred leaves? Mail addressed to [e-mail] is more likely to be passed to his succes-
sor. It could also be delivered to a group of people, which might help ensure that it is answered
promptly.
Allowing a Site to Age
You need to be careful to keep your Web site fresh. Content needs to be changed periodically.
Changes in the organization need to be reflected on the site. A “cobweb” site discourages
repeat visits, and leads people to suspect that much of the information might now be incorrect.
One way to avoid a stale site is to manually update pages. Another is to use a scripting lan-
guage such as PHP to create dynamic pages. If your scripts have access to up-to-date informa-
tion, they can constantly generate up-to-date pages.
Not Tracking the Success of the Site
Creating a Web site is all well and good, but how do you justify the effort and expense?
Particularly if the site is for a large company, there will come a time when you are asked to
demonstrate or quantify its value to the organization.
For traditional marketing campaigns, large organizations spend tens of thousands of dollars on
market research, both before launching a campaign and after the campaign to measure its
effectiveness. Depending on the scale and budget of your Web venture, these measures might
be equally appropriate to aid in the design and measurement of your site.
E-commerce and Security
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