Your website needs to stand out from all the other competing websites in your niche, so you should pay specific attention to the small details which will ensure that your site will be the one that entices people to stay and find out more. Here are some important things to remember to make sure your website outperforms the others.

1) Don't make your landing page too showy.

Landing pages are the very first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They often have lots of pretty graphics and a vacuous message like "Welcome to our website" or "Click here to learn more". These pages serve no real purpose, as visitors want real information within the first few seconds of arriving at a website. Show them what you have to offer them right up front on your landing page.

2) Don't litter your pages with banner advertisements

People are weary of banners, and if there are a lot of them they will pay no notice to any of them and move on to somewhere else, probably off your site. Banners take up lots of room on your page, room which could be better utilised in providing more valuable content with text ads like Adsense and Kontera, or affiliate links artfully inserted into your content. Make your visitors feel that they want to know more and that they are not being blatantly pressured to click on your ads.

3) Have clear navigation links in an obvious position

You must provide an uncluttered navigation menu, preferably on the left hand side of the page. Don't have too many items on it, or lots of dropdown menus. The visitor needs to quickly sum up whether there is anything of interest on your site, so give them limited options that they can take in at a glance.

4) Let the visitor know where he is at all times

We have all been guilty of surfing the net, finding something of interest which leads to another page, and then finding something else which leads to another page. Before you know it we have completely forgotten how we got to where we are. If you do have multiple pages on your site, make sure the "Home" button is prominently displayed in the same place on every page.

5) Try not to use audio on your site

You want to encourage visitors to stay on your site for as long as possible. If you have audio, it can become really irritating, especially if it is a blatant sales message, and it distracts you from the words you trying to read. Rather than turn off the speakers, the visitor is much more likely to just click away from your site. If you must have audio, make sure there are volume or muting adjustments, but it seems to me that if visitors actually exercise the volume control options there doesn't seem to be much point in having audio in the first place. A much better option is video, because then you have the visitor's full attention - he's not trying to look at something else while listening to your sales message.