Flaws that can drive customers away from your Web site  

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The busy home page - The Index page

Building an unfocused, information-heavy home page dilutes your customer's attention. Focus on one message that you want to get across to customers. Then create a clean, simple home page with a central focus and a readily identifiable message. Think of your home page as the top of a pyramid--the point from which you'll lead customers to logical section of your Web site. If you have several products to offer, integrate the products into a few select links on your home page, so customers aren't distracted from your central focus.    

The passive Web site 

Passive Web sites convey information, but they don't engage customers or interact with them. Passive sites usually consist of straight textual data. On the other hand, active Web sites encourage visitors by offering online services, customer forums, Chat Stations, Real Audio sales pitches, FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions), direct E-mail contact, and E-mail newsletters, which periodically remind customers who and where you are. Active sites also communicate with customers by speaking directly to them, often in the first and second person (I, we, or you).   

The "drab dead old junkie" Web site    

You should give the impression that your Web site is active, maintained daily, and an important part of your business. You accomplish that in part by occasionally offering something new and by quickly updating dead links on your Web site. No one wants to visit a ghost-town Web site. Better to have no Web site than to have no Web site than to have a dead one.   

Ignoring E-mail   

Not answering E-mail's, answering E-mail too slowly ( more than 24 hours ), or not following  up on E-mail will give the impression that you either don't care or your site isn't well run. Conversely, the best customer-service-oriented sites always answer E-mail promptly.   

Low customer value    

Do  your  customers get information,  entertainment,  interaction, prompt service, or other benefits when they come to your site?  In other words, do they have reasons to return? The ease with which you're able to offer value varies according to your business, but you should provide something of tangible value to keep customers returning. A classic example is the goodies section offered on the Skypak Web Site. A surfer encountering this page can download multimedia based calendar's, proflie, art shows etc.    

Slow connections and technical glitches   

Net customers want to travel through cyberspace with speed.  Not only are the net customers famously impatient, but they're often paying by the minute to look at that Windows hourglass or Macintosh clock.   

Large image maps and graphics may make your Web page attractive, but they often take a long time to download, which can leave users impatient.  In addition, Web sites that  contain  "broken" images  or bad links that are inaccessible because  they've  gone off-line will sufficiently annoy potential customers and convey  a negative message about the quality of your online operation. Always look to immediately repair broken images or links. If repair does take time it may not be a bad idea to create a script to point all broken images or links to a particular page. This page can then point the surfers in the appropriate direction.