Trade Secrets.

We all tend to prefer some sites over others. And the key is knowing why! After year’s of meditation, we’ve cracked what separates great sites from good ones.

• Be a guide

  When it comes to making decisions, your audience is a fickle beast. Too many choices are confusing. Give them as few options as possible and guide them through. Whether it’s an action you want them to take, a message you want them to hear, or a piece of content you want them to share, lead them effortlessly over the path you want them to follow. You’ll see your conversions go up significantly.

• First impressions are everything.

  You only have 4-5 seconds – tops – before a user loses interest and clicks away from your site. Get them to see your site as fast as possible, and keep them there by giving them a story they can’t resist.Site load should be first priority. Content, next. Design is third. Everything else comes after.

• You can’t be everything to everyone, so be
  something to someone.

  People remember a singular message. That’s why you remember a specific talk from TED.com more vividly than a generic one given at a big conference. You’ve a limited space (the browser window) and a limited time frame (1-2 minutes) in which to give your spiel. So find the singular message you want to showcase through your site’s content, design, and media. Pick your target audience, pick your best product/service/message, and pick the single thing you want your visitors to do.Once you’re clear on that, your creative team will chew it up and spit out gold.

• Don’t wait, launch!

  Like the good folk at 37signals.com say: “Half, not half-assed”. Launching faster doesn’t mean launching unpo-lished. It just means that you don’t need every single feature and case scenario covered to go live. Just get your basics right – that’s what’ll carry you through. As soon as you’ve got your core components in place, go live with your site. Then iterate over time. You lose visitors and value proposition every day you wait.