By no means should this guide be considered a 100% complete process for creating a website, but we do think it's a solid foundation. While specific technical notes can change rapidly, most of these tips are pretty timeless.

To IT people, website designers, SEO folks and other web and tech professionals much of our advice may seem like simple common sense. However, in our experience we’ve found that fundamental usability, design and copywriting basics sadly are often overlooked, forgotten or just plain dismissed as “old school.” It's for this reason that we aimed to be accessible to all types of visitors, not just those in web-related fields.

So where do we go from here?

We’d love to hear from you. Have you implemented any of these tips while developing a website? Got a question about your site that has you stumped? By all means contact us through this site, or send us a message on Twitter (@acriley & @zoonini). Of course, if you are looking for website design, copywriting or optimization, we’d love the opportunity to provide you with a customized quote.

We look forward to continuing the conversation.

This is where the web gods throw back their heads and laugh in the face of such naïveté. Because a website's launch is just the beginning.

Sure, the tedious back-and-forth of mockup approvals is over with, the copy and site are optimized, a favicon has been created, and the site passes the "cross-browser, cross-platform compatibility" testing. But it's not finished yet. In fact, it never will be.

Having website is a continuous process. In this super-competitive world, a "build it and they will come" mentality encourages failure, if not ensures it.

Why? Because website customer engagement is not a one-off effort.

Providing interesting visitor-focused content and an appealing, thoughtfully designed site is just the beginning. In the brick-and-mortar world, one pleasant interaction with a cashier doesn't mean the customer is suddenly a product advocate, raving fan and brand ambassador. Equally, a single web page interaction is not an indicator of consumer loyalty, no matter how friendly and winsome the copy, or how snazzy the design.

Post-launch activities are needed to monitor your site's effectiveness and what your people are saying about you, as well as attract prospective customers to your site.

Some of these post-launch tasks include:

Link Development

The best kind of link development is simply to create awesome stuff for your site that people want to link to - videos, white papers, blog posts, informative press releases, etc. Good content drives traffic, quality links and positive customer experience. Make sure you are listed in online industry directories, social networks, partner and vendor sites, and Google Local listings as well.

Content Analysis

Now that the site has launched, what content needs constant updating? What are site visitors looking for, and is that content available? Content strategy is not about more content, but rather, having the right content.

Social Media

Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube are great tools for customer participation, and the ability to interact and respond to clients in real-time. We love Common Craft's Social Media in Plain English.

Pay-Per-Click

For many businesses, a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign can attract business and work hand-in-hand with organic optimization, providing further customer intelligence and keyword insights.

Website Monitoring

Who is coming to your site, how are they getting there and once they've arrived, what are they doing? Analytics need to go well beyond the reporting of page views, time spent, or clicks, which don't predict consumer behaviour or involvement. Look at performance indicators. Establish a baseline, so that when changes are made you can see the effect. Google's Website Optimizer is a handy tool that helps with A/B testing.

Internet/Social Media Monitoring

Online monitoring is often used for customer insights, reputation or risk management, customer service and research, word-of-mouth campaigns. It's also useful for connecting and conversing with customers or outreach to prospective clients. As with website monitoring, it is crucial to go beyond reporting data, to understanding the sources, quality and accuracy of data, and what that data means to your business objectives.

Let's cut to the chase, all websites have two main goals:

1. Getting the right people (your target audience) to the site in the first place.
2. Getting those visitors to continue to interact with your site and brand online and offline!

Building a highly usable website to meet your goals, inform your visitors and create a happy positive experience is commendable. But the information and feedback you get from your users, potential customers and monitoring data transitions a site from good to great.

Now that your site has launched, it's not over... it's just beginning.

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In the digital age, how do we express our humanity online? How can we carry over the positive traits that make us human to the cold and impersonal series of tubes that form the Internet?

It's deceptively simple: By sounding like a real, living breathing person.

The reason why there are so many games mocking bizspeak language – like buzzword bingo and corporate-speak generators – is that this type of robots-are-really-running-the-show lingo runs rampant. The neutral, jargon-laden language of business is carefully crafted to avoid lawsuits, blend in, and pass the scrutiny of the dreaded committee.

Online, marketing cannot be about just pushing out a message. As we mentioned in Tip 1, the Internet is a unique medium. We are not a passive audience. We share stuff with our friends, we read and write blogs, we watch videos and listen to podcasts. We rate products, write reviews and sometimes rave – or rant – about a company or service on Twitter. Marketing is no longer a monologue that is blasted out in one direction. On the web, it is experienced. It is participatory. It is human.

But, it's hard for potential customers to feel all warm and fuzzy about "paradigm-shifting solutions." Consumers fail to engage with companies that use machine-like language. We are drawn to warmer, friendlier voices.

Because no one has ever criticized a company or website for being too human, here are a few tips for creating better-quality, ongoing exchanges:

Find your voice.

Let's face it, there's a lot of noise out there. A strong brand voice with a well-differentiated point of view creates a sparklingly unique you. How can you best talk about what you do and bring personality into the mix? Cut the corporate speak el-toro poo poo, and never, ever use the phrase "think outside the box" – it just proves how far in the box you are.

Put the focus on your visitor.

Stop the self-aggrandizing puffery, tired clichés and other corporate me-me-MEEEEEEEE blah blah. When you include your audience in your writing, it becomes a shared conversation. But, inclusive "you", "we", "us" language is just the beginning. What do visitors really want to see on your site? What information do they need at various stages of the buying cycle? What type of post-purchase content provides value? Where can you be gracious and say "thank you"? What human desires are you fulfilling?

Tell a story.

Everyone loves a good story. Vivid, compelling stories make information easier to remember, and create an emotional connection between the reader and the content. Blogs, podcasts, case studies, photos, and social-media networks like Twitter are the building blocks of a deeper, richer and ongoing story.

Be truthful.

Don't get carried away in your storytelling. Always be truthful. Over-promising and hype trigger skepticism and inevitably lead to disappointment. And, if it smells of Eau de Too Good to Be True, it probably is.

To err is human.

Companies often want to be seen as perfect, flawless entities. However, the ability to admit and apologize for mistakes is innately human. You messed up? Be accountable, and outline how you will correct the error. Then keep your word. People are amazingly forgiving, as long as you take responsibility.

In Tip 8 we touched upon the need for swift page-load speed. But the fastest loading page on the web is useless if there is no human connection with the content on the page.

So be brave, daring and courageous – be human.

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If there is one thing people can agree on it's this: no one likes waiting around for a website to load.

So, listen up big honking graphics... we're outta here.

Bye-bye Flash that takes forever to load.

And, you, the gratuitous use of excessive widgets, good riddance!

Pokey, slow-loading sites are responsible for poor user experiences, abandoned shopping carts, unread web pages and can even lead to web rage. Worst of all, they ultimately ensure that your potential customer is headed off to your competitors' sites. Research by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of Akamai, found that two seconds is the new threshold in terms of an average online shopper’s expectation for a web page to load.

Beware!

Our enemy Slow is tricky; it manifests itself in a multitude of insidious ways:

Slow-loading images

A common cause of slow-loading graphics is that they are at a too-high resolution meant for print, not web. Be sure to define image heights and widths – don't let the browser do the work of calculating the size of your images. As well, compress all graphics to keep file sizes as low as possible, while still keeping a beautiful look and feel.

Waiting for video to download

If you have an embedded video avoid making your visitors wait for the video to download by using Flash video, which allows the user to start playing the video before the video file has fully downloaded. If there happens to be network congestion, the visitor can then decide to download the video. Of course, always compress your video.

Bad coding & bulky CSS

Code bloat – makes us a little queasy just saying it. And it's just as nasty as it sounds. It slows down search engines, can cause havoc with servers and can result in nightmarish maintenance. Tips? Use CSS for tableless design and move JavaScript off the page. You'll find more suggestions in Tip 6.

Server/hosting issues that slow down websites

While AAAACheapHosting may have sounded like a real steal, invest in a decent web host and ensure a speedy server response time.

Troubleshooting Tools

To shed light on site speed issues, some handy free tools you might want to check out include Firebug and its add-on YSlow, which help debug and monitor code as well as optimize for speed. Google's Page Speed, another Firefox/Firebug add-on, offers more helpful troubleshooting suggestions.

Patience may be a virtue, but online impatience drives our purchasing decisions.

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On many websites, these types of digital assets represent a missed opportunity. Digital assets (those photos, videos and the like) are elements that could be optimized to help your marketable materials show up in a lot more places than just regular search-engine results.

We know the topic of “digital asset optimization” sounds like a bit of an eye-glazing yawn-fest, but bear with us.

Website content has morphed from solely text-based web pages to richer and more diverse types of content. Search has gone vertical, with niche search engines and powerhouse search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing delivering shopping, image, video, audio and local search results. In today’s online market, everything is content. Absolutely everything.

How mind-bending is that?

Go from “page results” to “page share.”

It’s a more holistic way of thinking – not about just optimizing your page content for good search-engine page results, but also creating content that can be shared and passed around. Let's say you run a dance studio, and have a few videos of different types of dance steps. Why not set up a YouTube channel under your dance studio's name, and share your videos? Be sure the video's title and description are accurate (and include keywords, naturally) and share it through social bookmarking. Use relevant, descriptive tags, and if you embed it on your own site include a description of what viewers can expect to see.

And you don’t have to be one of those podcasting, social-media scenester, user-generated content-2.0 types to take advantage of these new opportunities. Even the most staid of traditional companies has digital assets. The problem is they might still be offline. With a little willingness to look around and dust off marketable materials, such as sales presentations, training videos or informative newsletters, they can be turned into very cunning digital assets that can be found in search engines and in turn bring more traffic to your site.

More content + more channels = More reach.

Is there a trick to this? No BUT, the content has to be:

1. Relevant to your audience.
2. Able to stand alone.
3. Informative or entertaining.

That's it. So, take a good look at your existing website content as well as offline materials. What interesting, unique content do you have that could be turned into marketable digital assets? What keywords should be assigned to each asset? How can you best promote your digital assets – YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, Twitter, Delicious? By taking advantage of all of your content, you make it easy for people to find richer, more diverse types of documents, and increase incoming links along the way.

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But repeat after us: Code may not be sexy, but it's very important. Code may be "under the hood" and invisible to most, but what good is an uber-cool car if the engine that runs it is utter shite?

As a marketing manager, business owner or creative team member, you may not ever have to know how to code a site yourself, but you do need to understand that if your code isn’t up to par it can reduce search-engine friendliness, user-friendliness and even hamper the look of the site.

We’ve compiled some simple code dos and don'ts to use as a starting point for discussion with your programmer or web designer.

Spider-Inhibiting Design

Stay clear of these "features" if you want search-engine robots to easily crawl and index your site:

• HTML frames
• Flash-only navigation
• Javascript-only navigation
• Using a PDF when a web page would do
• Pop-up windows for keyword-rich content

Code Bloat

Sleek, clean code is a thing of beauty. Here are a few tips to streamline your code:

• Go table-less for non-tabular data layout wherever feasible
• Use external CSS files as much as you can: keep style information separate from site content
• Style your content using "semantic markup" that uses headings and other tags to define the function of each part of the page
• Ensure your website passes W3 validation and has as few errors as possible

Don't Confuse the Browser

Browsers will go a little batty when presented with code they don’t understand, like:

• Specifying non-standard fonts, which forces the browser to make decisions about what font the site will display with – and that may be a font you never intended
• Missing Doctypes (“document type declaration”) send browsers into “quirks mode,” a type of browser conniption fit that may also render the site in all kinds of unintended ways

Non-Optimized Images

All images should be optimized for the web. This means photos should usually be JPEG images and non-photographic logos or graphic images should generally be rendered as GIFs or PNGs. Files should be compressed to the smallest possible size with the least loss of visual quality – it's a balancing act.

So get in there, lift up the hood of your website and take a look.

Coding may not be as exciting as wireframes and mockups, but it is the engine that keeps your site performing at its best. A peek under the hood along with regular maintenance and servicing can do a world of wonders.

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For most websites, that’s not going to happen.

The best user experience is when the visitor has almost no noticeable experience at all. It’s seamless, it’s easy and it feels right. If your site architecture, navigation, design, content and functionality all work together, your visitors will be quietly content. And that rocks. Why? Because they can find product info easily, it’s a breeze to get in touch with you, everything functions as it should, and the look-and-feel of the site jibes with your brand. People are happy.

But bad experiences are not so subtle – in fact, they’re all kinds of wrong. If there is anything that gets people hitting the "back" button, it's search tools that don’t work, broken links, pages that take too long to load, outdated content, forms that refuse to submit… the list goes on and on.

Hand over the controls to the user.

Sometimes in an effort to create a good experience, designers impose an experience. And to that, we have one thing to say: Don’t.

Like the drunk who keeps turning up the music and screaming “Good party, eh?”, trying to control visitors' website experience is seriously annoying.

You know the sites. The unexpected music that suddenly blasts from your speakers. Not surprisingly, generic ambient-trance music doesn’t make the user experience – or the company’s brand – any better. Or video that automatically starts playing, sending you jolting out of your chair. Allow the user to choose whether or not to play music or video.

Oh, and to the designer who wants to resize my browser window to YOUR optimal size: Did I give you permission to do that? No, it’s rude. The end of good manners, common courtesy and civility? Not on our watch, Bucko.

Flash intros increase bounce rates.

Surveys have shown that 80% of consumers hate Flash intros. Hate – you don't get any stronger than that. You probably already know how we feel about Flash intros, but if you missed it, here’s our answer to the age-old question “Do I need a Flash intro?” Don’t put a barrier between the user and your site. If you have to include something that says "Skip Intro", common sense should kick in.

And then there are the sites that smugly announce that only the latest version of Flash is acceptable. So, go away valued customer, and come back when you’ve downloaded it. Yeah, good luck with that approach.

Treat your visitor like a guest, with respect. Give them control over their own experience.

Don’t create an experience, let one unfold.

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Back in Tip 2, we urged site owners, marketers and anyone who has a website to get to the point, and clarify their website goals. Sometimes, it’s easy to get carried away. If one goal is good, wouldn’t 10 goals be awesome?! Well, not if they are on the same page they aren’t.

Frankly, we don’t have a clue what’s going on here, here or here, but they represent a trip to the dark side, the epitome of anti-usability… asking people to do too much. Why do we ask people to do things online that we would never, ever do in a real-world setting?

Here’s the thing: Human beings HATE being bombarded with stuff.

Imagine walking into a brick-and-mortar business and being shouted at by a bunch of people.

• The sales dude shrills, “Check out our products. FREE demo!”
• The receptionist is demanding that you fill out a rather complex form now to get a brochure, and yes, you must provide your phone number before you can get the precious, precious brochure.
• The CEO has launched into a soliloquy about his outstanding leadership abilities and Fortune 500 experience.
• The customer service lady yells “FAQ!” at you, and you have the urge to holler “FaaaaaaaQ” back at her, but manage to restrain yourself.

Start screaming orders at potential customers, and, for the love of Pete (or peat, if you are one of those gardening types), we’ll resent it. We might even rise up. At the very least we will send you a nasty look and move away quickly.

Back to web design and online copy, in the immortal words of Steve Krug, “Don’t make me think.”

When someone arrives at your site from a search-engine results page, they're saying, “I’m interested.” Don’t blow it.

Stop competing with yourself. Welcome people, guide them, and then get out of the way. If we had to narrow it down to two simple things to remember it would be this:

1. Site architecture, not architorture.

Keep your navigation simple. The site architecture should make it easy to find information. Visitors should be able to happily zip about your site and access the content they are looking for. If there is something that is in the way of that happening, get rid of it.

2. When everything is important, absolutely nothing is important.

Multiple calls to action on a page are just confusing and counter-intuitive. Too many options are overwhelming, so avoid busyness/information overload like the plague. Instead, provide a clear, consistent direction.

In the end, if it seems like work, it probably is.

Don’t force your user to do too much. They really will hate you for it. Okay, that’s harsh, we admit. Strongly dislike. Feel better now?

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What is it that makes us trust a new website?

Is it a particular colour? A certain look?

We have expectations and assumptions about what companies and professionals should look like. Offline, we would never dream of stepping into a bleak-looking bistro with a broken window, sketchy cleanliness standards, no customers and a waiter who looks like he's auditioning for the role of “Thug #1”. (If you would, we beg you to re-examine your dining-establishment standards.) Most of us want our local restaurant to be a clean, convivial place where we feel welcomed.

Online, just as in the real world, we look for indications of trustworthiness. We want to be assured that a person, a company, a product or a service is credible. Do they look the part?

What can you do to build trust online? Here are a few tips:

1. Dependability Through Design

An unprofessional website isn’t just limited to small startups trying to cut corners with cheap or no-cost – Hello, cousin Timmy! – web design. Medium-sized businesses and big corporations can be equally guilty of a terrible user experience, whether it’s a complicated form required just to download a pamphlet, frustrating-to-use reservation systems (hotels and airlines, you know who you are), or site search tools that never seem to find what we're looking for. A pleasing, user-centric web design goes a long way in building online credibility.

2. Current Content

No one likes the cryogenically frozen website, locked into its 2001 time capsule. Dead links, old information… all of these types of things set off the “Is this company still in business?” alarm bells. Current updates, blog posts, and news show consistency and all contribute to a more dynamic, more interesting and, ultimately, more trustworthy – not to mention useful – website.

3. Show, Don’t Tell

Online, simply making claims about a product or service doesn’t cut it; you need to demonstrate trust, expertise and value. For any e-commerce site, recognizable symbols such as VeriSign and Visa provide visual reassurance that private information is protected, and posting a returns policy and information on shipping charges helps to build consumer confidence. Case studies let your results speak for themselves, while client testimonials and user-generated product reviews let your customers speak for you.

4. Human Contact

Have you ever wanted to get in touch with a company, clicked on "Contact" only to find an inquiry form and nothing else? Or worse, a "fly by night" Hotmail or Yahoo email address? People, get it together! Create an email address using your own domain. Don’t make it difficult for people to get in touch with you. In addition to a contact form, be sure to include a phone number, email address, or driving directions if applicable. Include direct contact details for commonly requested departments – customer service, sales, tech support, etc. Make sure there is an "About Us" page that provides concrete details about the business as well as shows photos and bios of the people behind the organization. People trust people, not companies.

5. No Typos

Grammatical mistakes and spelling errors erode credibility. It’s as simple as that. End of story.

Online credibility isn't instantaneous, but by providing a strong "trust infrastructure" you are well on your way to building a more believable, more authentic website.

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Too many websites are nascent blobs of regurgitated brochures. (We've been dying to say that for a while now...) And, in the hyper-growing world of online communications, mediocre is the fast track to obsolete.

Website mediocrity usually stems from fuzzy generic goals or not understanding what people truly want from your website. It's not good enough to proclaim "Our website will make it easy for visitors to sign up for our newsletter," if the visitor has no interest in doing so. No matter how many SIGN-UP NOW banners there are to attract attention, it's pointless unless value and benefits are clear to the visitor.

Generic goals usually take the form of sweeping statements.

"Our website will enhance customer service" is a lovely, lofty goal, but unfortunately it's not a specific website purpose. How will you improve customer service online – with an FAQ, or online help section? Or perhaps an area to download upgrades, brochures, installation guides or frequently requested forms?

Specific company goals influence site architecture, content and navigation paths. And don't forget the user. What do they want? There's a fine line between balancing visitor and company objectives. And, unfortunately, there is sometimes a complete disconnect between company and visitor desires.

Too often, company and visitor objectives clash.

Company: We want to build customer relationships and raise brand awareness, therefore our website objective is to increase newsletter sign-ups.

Customer: Where's the %$*# online coupon?

It's time to get existential.

Toss aside meaninglessness. Laugh – Ha, Ha, Ha! – in the face of absurdity, and make the pointless...um, "pointful."

Because a deep understanding of your website's purpose precedes every action, from copy to design.

Give your website a purpose, a reason to exist. But to understand your raison d'être, you first must be honest and specific about your company website goals, your users' needs and expectations, and – the key to it all – you must be able to define success.

Get ready to embrace the angst and ask yourself these 5 Big Existential Website Questions

• Who am I?
• What is my purpose?
• Why am I unique/why does my target audience like me?
• Where can I provide unexpected, delightful value?
• How will I know I've succeeded?

Download our free PDF worksheet – Website Goals and Their Content/Design Implications – to help you plan your new site, or your next remake.

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