If you operate a small business that hasn't yet realized the value or potential of the Internet in attracting customers to your products or services, wake up! You are not only missing out on a golden opportunity but also losing a lot of would-be customers to your competition.

If, on the other hand, you are in the growing majority of businesses that do a significant portion of their business online, you already know the value of a website. But how well do you understand the value of making that website attractive?

Studies show conclusively that a poorly constructed website will lose a large portion of its visitors within a very short period of time. And a very slow website—well, forget it! Customers won't even bother with it.

So, as a Web marketer, you are doubly challenged. You need to make customers flock to your site, but you also need to keep them there so they will hang around and look. Yet I continually run across poorly designed sites where I see the same mistakes repeated over and over again.

What follow are four common ways that small business websites in particular can lose visitors within minutes, if not seconds.

1. Aggravate eyestrain

Nothing is more unappealing than a website with a cluttered look. Nobody wants to see a page filled to capacity with boring text; even worse is a page that is hard to read:

• Although it might sound colorful, blue text on a purple background is a nightmare to the human eye. So is a gaudy font that is as illegible as it is fancy.
  
• Long paragraphs present a daunting challenge to many readers.
  
• And why would you even consider burdening your viewers with tiny text?

Always treat your customers' eyes with kindness. Make your site a pleasant sight!
 
2. Make content hard to find

Site visitors typically have a good idea of what they are looking for. It's your job to make it easy for them to find it!

All too often I see pages designed with the expectation that the viewer will read the entire page to learn what to do next. Most people don't want to do that; they'd much rather skim the page to find a link that takes them where they want to go.

A link that reads "click here" doesn't tell your viewer very much at all. Instead, you should clearly describe the destination within the text of your link. For example, a link that reads "Learn more about (name of product)" works much better.

Describing the destination of your links will allow your visitors to quickly go to where they want to be, and to know for certain that the link will get them there.