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Walking through the magazine aisle, among the hundreds of glossy covers, the airbrushed models, the photo montage of that knock-out BMW, the shiny colors of interior design, the wacky covers of alternative culture, among the eye catching titles that promise to solve your life or the gory details of the latest teen star in distress, it's a full blown competition for our attention, and it is the same on the Internet.

It all comes down to content and usability. There is not only one website devoted to house keeping, there are thousands and of course each person will only bookmark the one that fits best with their needs.

1. Comprehensive well written, constantly updated, interesting, concise content. This is why weblogs are so important for business sites and they are no longer just a personal hobby A website that does not have a weblog will soon be discarded. This is the one sure way to keep the website updated. Users want new and different content, there is no use to read the same thing that another site is reporting on, this is why the need for qualified writers is rising.

2. Interactive services. Many offer to create a profile and personalize the user's experience, usually there is a newsletter, weekly tips, notices, or news.

3. Respects Privacy. If a user signs up for a website and suddenly starts getting spam mail, the user must trace back and unsubscribe as soon as possible. A good website always has a privacy policy available to read. Ideally they will not share your information.

4. Contact. A website which does not offer an easy way to contact the company behind it is lacking credibility. Even a contact form will do if it's backed up by a confirmation message.

5. Friendly design. Forget those splashy flash screens, nobody looks at them. Users want to get to the content fast and this content must be well organized and ideally websites today should not require additional plug-ins to display correctly. A joyful, simple concept, a harmonious color scheme and diferenciating logos are essential.

6. Search box. How important this is and still many sites do not have it. The overwhelm of information forces a site to have a search box, especially if they handle large amounts of information. There is nothing more frustrating and disappointing for a user than to "know" they saw something that they need and not being able to find it again.

These are some of the criteria to keep in mind while building a website. Even if it's just a brochure to build web presence, it's important to keep it simple, accessible, well written and most of all updated.

Learn more about this author, Luisa Fernanda.
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