The basic criteria for evaluating the quality of a website are the purposes it serves. Do we know the purpose of the website? Are they fulfilled? To what an extent?

Even if a website serves the purpose of the company, it can always be more ambitious; it can always be superb. The Internet strategy of a website - if it exists - rarely can and does take full advantage of the entire potential of the Internet. The websites themselves are rarely optimal and far from being flawless. This is why it is always a good policy to get to know the basic rules for evaluating a website structure.

The most important, eye catching place, is the upper left corner of the website.

Based on the Eyetrack Internet research, Internet users entering a website start with the upper left corner.

This place serves the function of a namecard (it allows us to recognize what website we are currently visiting). This very place also develops brand awareness (the visitor memorizes the name and the logo of the website).

If the logo is not situated in the left upper corner, the company has probably made a mistake designing the graphic layout.

There are, obviously, exceptions to this rule - one of those may be creative websites, like advertising agencies, websites promoting movie premieres, website serving as advertising campaigns. With this kind of websites, breaking the rule is not only acceptable but welcome.

Flash technology should be used with moderation.

Some companies have their websites made exclusively using Flash technology
At first sight it may seem very attractive, yet this kind of attitude is usually a mistake for a few reasons:

• Not all Internet users have their Flash technology installed on their browsers. Those without the Flash option will not be able to enter the website at all.
• Some users may have an older version of the flash plug-in; they too will not be able to watch the website.
• Websites made exclusively in flash take a really long time to open. Not every user has a fast Internet connection. There are known cases, when virtually 100% users decided to leave the website waiting for it to open.

• Internet browsers cannot index the content of flash technology websites, which makes their positioning extremely difficult.

On the whole, flash technology should be used mainly for placing animations on the website, such as advertisements or some interactive elements, especially Internet games. If the whole page has been made in this technology our advice is usually to redesign it.

Again, en exception to this rule may be creative agencies, websites promoting a particular movie premier or a game as well as websites with entertainment for children.

Website has to make a really good first impression.

If the first impression after entering a website is not a ‘wow’ , this probably means that a lot should or could be improved.

The former statement does not necessarily mean that a pharmaceutical company’s service has to pop. On the contrary, the form should be perfectly fitted to the meaning it conveys i.e. a pharmaceutical website should strike as professional and – on the subconscious level - imply the values important for the company; reliability, care for the patient’s health, superb quality.

In the meantime, most company’s websites are, let face it, mediocre. The companies that created their websites a few years ago did not take into account such a huge popularity of the Internet and assigned as little as possible for this purpose. A very good example may be comparing a website to a car. Both look good when they are new, both make a really good impression when they are well designed, but both have to be replaced with a newer model at some point if they are to fulfill their goals and make a good impression.

Many a time have we dealt with a task of renovating the image of a website and each time the completion of the task had instantly resulted in increasing the efficiency of the website.

We could go on listing numerous other, more detailed rules for evaluating an existing website. However, in care not to waste your precious time, we suggest you to contact us [click/ give us a click] and allow us to evaluate your website. For free.

From our experience we know that taking the image of the company’s website seriously does pay off. It pays off with higher efficiency, with greater trust of the visitors, and with increased amount of products purchased.