1. Fast loading time: This means smaller pictures and no mandatory flash intros. When a prospective customer is surfing the web, they have thousands of different sites available to them, so if your web site takes more than a moment or two to load, then they will go elsewhere. Since you have been checking your site on your computer, your internet browser has been saving “cookies” (bits of data from your website) to save you time the next time you visit the site. To find out the true loading time of your site for first time visitors, clear the cache on your internet browser, and then visit your site. 2. No music! : This one gets an exclamation point, since it’s important for two reasons. First, music adds to the time your web site will take to load (see number 1). The second reason is that often the prospective customer browsing your web site is also eating her lunch in a cubicle at the office, where loud music is frowned upon, or while watching television at night, when music would not be welcome. 3. Easy to read text: While your web site should be more developed than a white page with size 12 Times New Roman writing, it should still be easily legible. Stay away from announcements that are all in capital letters, light colored writing on a white background, or dark lettering on a black background. Before your web site goes live (or if you are re-designing it) reach out to a wide variety of friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances to preview it. Different browsers may show colors differently, and what is aesthetically pleasing to you may be hard for someone else to read.
