You're walking on a busy street. Your friend John is on the other side and you want to get his attention. So you start waving and shout "John!" You get John's attention and once there's a break in the traffic, John crosses over. John’s now standing in front of you. What do you do now? Stop waving and shouting.

When someone comes to your website you already have their attention, yet so much Web marketing involves waving and shouting at the customer standing right in front of you. No wonder so many hit the Back button.

Vain hero shots and silly welcome messages drive most of your customers insane. The Web is not about goals. It is about tasks. Big difference. We recently tested a website where it took ages for an absolutely useless graphic to download. Customers were not impressed.

Social media is the latest craze, and, boy, do marketers love crazes. Most of your customers do not want to interact with you. They just want the facts. They want the price, the dimensions, a comparison of your product with competitors.

Most marketers love coming up with fancy new names for their products and services. Absolute suicide if you want to get found. Basic rule of the Web: the customer controls the language, not you.

The Web is self-service. The Web is about customer power. It is the customer, not the organization, who is in control on the Web. The customer searches, the customer clicks on that link (or not), the customer quickly scans your webpage. What will your customer do next? Click on one of your compelling links or hit the Back button?

Too many people create websites that look beautiful. But what we really need are websites that WORK beautifully. It's not enough to put some content up. It's not enough to launch and leave an application or a new website design. If you want a website that makes money you must continuously improve the completion times of your customers' top tasks. The most important thing you need to manage on your website is your customers' time.