Common elements of good websites

If your website is missing one of these items this could explain why its not living up to it’s potential.

1. Navigation bars – header/footer. It’s a good idea to have them both just for simplicity. Try to give every incentive for the user to visit another one of your pages and potential use your services.

2. About page – with useful information. Sure you have an about page, but is there anything unique in there which personalizes you or your services? Anyone visiting your about page wants to check up on you and get a better feel for your company. If you provide good info and background that could be enough to seal the deal.

3. Updates. Having the option to subscribe to a newsletter or blog feed keeps your visitors in the loop. This takes the guess work out of the equation and gets new content to your visitors as you produce it.

4. Browser compatibility. Not every visitor is using IE7 (or Firefox, or even Safari). From a visitor’s point of view a web site that does not display properly in the browser “I’m” using never leaves a good impression. It takes a bit more of an effort but I’m the the user visiting from their iPhone will appreciate it.

5. Search. Maybe you haven’t created a page for every topic but you certainly have covered it on a few other pages. Sometimes a search feature will provide the answer for the user who doesn’t fit into the standard category.

Has Yahoo’s time past?

Once a giant in the search engine business Yahoo is now struggling. A failed deal with Microsoft, bungled right from the start. Declining ad revenue. Let’s face it, most advertising money is going to Google. Laying off employees. Even less resources to put towards the search biz. There is no doubt Yahoo is facing some troubles in the days going forward. Should they roll over and give up on the search business?

Perhaps they are wasting their time and resources continuing down the path of search engine relevance. Maybe it’s time to focus on the things that their many users still go to the site for. Focus on what’s working. Yahoo news, email, community. Yahoo is still a great portal for many users. Perhaps focusing on the search segment may cost them a few users who convert to Microsoft. If you’ve been paying any attention to Microsoft (other than the ranting of Steve Ballmer) they’ve been putting a major push for the MSN live network. Making it easier to connect up all of your MSN services with one user id. Perhaps Yahoo needs to focus on integrating all of their services, making the user experience even easier.

Just don’t forget what you do well, and continue to improve upon it.