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Tips for Internet Business
These are a must for any business site that I design. I have found all this information to be relevant and important to keeping your business credible on the Internet.
Give Contact information. For personal pages this can be a simple e-mail address, perhaps not with your "real" name. For businesses you should also include a physical address, and phone number with area code.Have a privacy policy, Terms of Service, policy on spam, how personal information will be used etc... It only takes an hour of research and a hyper link to another page for your site to really spell out what you do with personal information. It makes me feel better knowing you are thinking about it.Be up front about why you need certain information. Don't ask for too much personal info on a first contact. See this as a greeting with a shake of hands, not a shake down.Give a background of your company. Who are you? Why do you do this stuff? You may think that no one will read it but I assure you that those serious about looking into your business will give it a once over.Post official documentation online - for instance I have a copy of my business license on this site.Post anything that you are an official member of that holds meaning to the product/service you offer, i.e. member of the Chamber of Commerce, breed organization, or riding group.Reply to e-mail within 24 hours. If you can't reply, get a 'bot to send some sort of automated response ("we will be contacting you shortly" --) Reply professionally with a full signature and additional contact information.Keep your web site well maintained with working links. Realize that this is like a customer calling and in the middle of a conversation with you - you have hung up! This is a must!Post references. These don't have to include full name but can be something like - Ashley K. of Orlando, FL. You might be very surprised by what just a few simple sentences do to make a difference in how people feel about you and your site.Be helpful. It might surprise you how many times I have received rude e-mail just from asking a question! Some people don't think they should bother in responding to e-mail that doesn't look like it will be a "sale." How wrong these folks are! It's been proven over and over again that people want to buy from someone they consider a "friend" so you can see how being rude works against you.Update! Even if all you do is put a new welcome message on the home page do something to look like you stop by your own site Search engines track how often a site has been updated when they visit and they will note your page as an active site and they will revisit more frequently.