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Almost all the companies around the world today have their own websites developed in sophisticated and attractive designs for higher sale and promotion of their goods and services across a wider spectrum of customers through internet (Vrontis, Ktoridou, and Melanthiou 2006). Website represents the identity of a company or individual engaged in e-commerce. Vrontis, Ktoridou, and Melanthiou have profound that website is considered to be the core component of online-marketing communication program and an efficient well-designed website can contribute to a very powerful promotional tool of the organization (2006). There are many free online tools to develop websites available at freewebs, weebly, jimdo, webs and so on.

Various studies content that key factors in web design constitute website usability (navigation and loading), website accessibility (search engine), content (relevant information), color factor, links, trustworthiness, privacy and security and accessibility. The top three factors which we are going to discuss are usability, content and accessibility which Hernandez, B., Jimenez, J., and Martin, M. J. have profound to be the most significant for the success of a quality website (2009).


Usability: Ease of Navigation is one of the most important factors in terms of usability for the success of the website. Navigation means choosing a path through a website (Vrontis, Ktoridou, and Melanthiou 2006) and it should be able to help users to have an easy going, enjoyable and secured visit through the website. Study suggests that usually on website if users can not find what they are looking for in 3 clicks then they are gone (HFI 1996). Hence an efficient navigation system should cater a simple, clear, consistent and an intuitive understanding of the website path to its users along with site search function which would enable users to know easily where they are and where want to go all the time (Vrontis, Ktoridou, and Melanthiou 2006).


Loading time is another significant component of web design. Research have profound that users are impatient in most cases hence website should be designed in such a way that its load time is as minimum as possible allowing users quick access to every page even on a very slow internet connection (Vrontis, Ktoridou, and Melanthiou 2006). Users can tolerate maximum 2-10 seconds download time therefore unnecessary videos, flashes and other elements should be strictly avoided as they will slow down the loading speed (Naseer 2010). IA defines simplicity and speed as important factors and gives few guidelines (2009).



Content: When users visit a website their basic objective is to find the information they are looking for. That information is the content of the website and “content is the king” (McCarthy 1995 cited in Hernandez, B., Jimenez, J., and Martin, M. J. 2009). The company or individual should therefore present all the information that it wants it users to know about in a most appropriate way. Hernandez, B., Jimenez, J., and Martin, M. J. have profound that content can mainly comprise of informative, transactional and communicative (2009). The study suggest that informative constitute data regarding the firm or individual’s background and activity including product and service information which should be precise, relevant and up to date, transactional would encompass transactions to complete the online dealings and this should be easy, simple and less number of clicks and lastly, communicative includes user support and interactivity which can be delivered via emails, telephone and live chat functions which will add a competitive advantage for the firm and enhance the web quality.


Accessibility: Users should easily identify and access the website so that it enjoys a higher traffic. This can be achieved by increasing the website’s visibility through SEO - search engine optimization (Vrontis, D., Ktoridou, D., and Melanthiou, Y. 2006). Where SEO tool is a free resource available to increase the website popularity (Hernandez, B., Jimenez, J., and Martin, M. J. 2009), there are many tips for how to use this tool in most efficient manner to enhance your website accessibility (Mughal 2009). Also Google’s SEO guideline is useful to achieve maximum visibility and accessibility for the website (Mughal 2009).

However overly literal search engines reduce usability because they are unable to ‘read’ certain variants of the query term e.g. hyphens. Also, this possess a problem where search engines prioritise results on other basis e.g. how many query terms they contain, rather than on the importance of each document. ‘Search is the user's lifeline when navigation fails’ (Nielson 2009) so it is important than the search engine should be as simple as possible even though advanced search can sometimes helps.


To conclude with, online businesses lack face to face interaction with its customers so the only window available is through its website therefore the firms and individuals who design their websites keeping in mind the user’s needs and preferences and offering them with high value product and services will succeed and prosper.




References


Hernandez, B., Jimenez, J., and Martin, M. J. (2009) ‘Key website factors in e-business strategy’. International Journal of Information Management [online] 29 (5), 362 – 371. Available from < http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/wzgw?so=reverse+date%2F-date&fs=+30+&tag=30&tag=43&tag=49&rsn=4&esn=b&rn=26&nr=25&settags=1&id=23563422 > [3 April 2010]

HFI (1996) 10 Usability Principles to guide you through the Web Design Maze [online] available from < http://www.humanfactors.com/about/10tips.asp > [1 April 2010]

IA (2009) What’s next in web design [online] available from < http://informationarchitects.jp/whats-next-in-web-design/> [29 March 2010]

Mughal, N.A. (2009) 10 Critical web design factors while designing and developing your website. [19 December 2009] available from [2 April 2010]

Mughal, N.A. (2009) The shortest tutorial ever on search engine optimization. [25 December 2009] available from < http://www.naseerahmad.com/2009/12/25/the-shortest-tutorial-ever-on-seo.html > [3 April 2010]

Mughal, N.A. (2008) Google’s SEO guide for webmasters. [26 November 2008] available from < http://www.naseerahmad.com/2008/11/26/googles-search-engine-optimization-guide-for-webmasters.html > [3 April 2010]

Nielson, J. (2009) Top 10 mistakes in web design [online] available from [29 March 2010]

Vrontis, D., Ktoridou, D., and Melanthiou, Y. (2006) ‘Website Design and Development as An Effective and Efficient Promotional Tool: A Case Study in the Hotel Industry in Cyprus’. Journal of Website Promotion [online] 2 (3/4), 125 – 139. available from < http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=101&sid=a650cc17-72d9-44ea-9573-0f3b0c5ca46e%40sessionmgr114 > [29 March 2010]