What should I put on my website?

Getting a website for your business can be daunting. What do I put on it? What do I leave out?

Here are the top DO's and DON'Ts for your business website content.

DO

• Think about what your customers want, and the quickest way to match that with what you have to offer. Remember, they're on the internet, not on your premises, catch their attention quickly.
  
• Talk to your website designer about what you want from the site.
• Expect to put in some time at the start of the process.
• Pick a domain name that is fairly short, easy to remember and spell, and also has some sort of relevance to the product.
• Put your contact details on there. I have seen sites that forgot to do it!

DON'T.

• Don't try to save time by just sticking of a photo of your business card of leaflet. It may look okay when you look at the site, but how do you expect Google to find it? Google's programs don't 'read' photographs of text.
  
• Don't put long paragraphs of text welcoming people to the site. That may be fine for written reports, or corporate speeches, but on the internet, people are less patient, and want you to get to the point quickly. After all, they can just click 'back' and leave your site very quickly.
• Don't give too much info on your business. After all, your competition is sure to check your website too!
• Don't fill your front page with too many fancy graphics and Flash movies. If it takes too long to load, the customers will move to the next site.
• Don't use too much jargon. The easier it is for customers to understand, the better.
  
• Don't use copyrighted music, images or other content without permission. You can be sued.