When you send a mailing with HTMail the list members that visit your site are encouraged to tell us what they like most about your pages and what they like least about it. We provide that information to you in the form of a report.

Having processed hundreds of thousands of comments from members - we can now present our definitive guide to the ten things that most annoy visitors to your web site. If your site has any of the faults below... get rid of them fast!

	Speling Mistakes... The error most likely to get your site the 'unprofessional' label. No matter how big your company is, or how excellent the product and service you provide - all that a visitor to your site knows about you is what they see - and a spelling mistake will destroy your image faster than any other method.
	Broken Links... Second only to spelling mistakes for getting the 'unprofessional' label (a kiss of death to sales which always depend on building trust). Check, and check again. Be especially careful of links to graphics on other sites. If the other site is down, or the other webmaster changes the name of the graphic, your page shows a broken link.
	Java and Javascript... Want to stop 5% or more of your visitors from viewing your site? Here's the answer. If the interaction on your site can only be achieved with Java or Javascript then you should test it with every browser you possibly can - and with every security setting that those browsers have! Java and Javascript tend to be reliant on browser type and version being used. Using Perl or some other form of server based CGI script will avoid these problems, but can be slower. CGI scripts run on the server and deliver an HTML page to the browser - avoiding the need for the browser to do any processing, and therefore avoiding most incompatability problems.
	Speed of loading... A very common complaint - 'too slow' immediately alienates your visitor. It's their time that you are wasting. Make sure that all of your graphics are optimised. Avoid huge gifs and jpegs whenever possible.
	Too few graphics... The antithesis to the previous complaint! Even though visitors do not want a slow loading page - they do want attractive graphics in the design of the page. Keep them small and interesting wherever possible.
	Colour... Be careful with colours (this is the UK spelling for color - not a spelling mistake!) - especially where you are using a coloured text on a coloured background (be particularly careful of textured backgrounds). Browser and screen combinations can differ in the way colours are represented - and what looks fine on one browser will be unreadable on another. Either stick with simple colours for text and background - or test, test, test.
	Frames... Can make or break a site. Be careful in the way they are put together, and be aware that a proportion of visitors use browsers that cannot view frames.
	Payment methods... A surprising number of online visitors do not have or will not use a credit card. Offer alternative payment methods on your site - advice that we are only just taking ourselves!
	Cookies... Not on every page please! A common complaint on sites that use cookies is that they overuse them. Many people set their browser to either refuse cookies, or to ask before accepting them. A cookie on every page will rapidly drive these visitors away.
	Music and background sound... Be very, very sure when using music that it is the right thing to do. If in doubt, don't.

Dave Broadway
January 2000

Copyright (c) HTMail Ltd 2000 http://www.htmail.com all rights reserved. You may freely distribute or publish this article provided you publish the whole article and include this copyright notice and links in full.

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