Make your Web site work harder for you
Outshine the competition online
Right now, the Internet is an exciting place for business. Web 2.0 is rapidly changing your customers' expectations; and despite the current economic climate, online spend is set to exceed last year's Christmas figures by 15 per cent*.
Transform your site into a real revenue driver and optimise the power of Web 2.0 with Microsoft Web products. Browse this site to find out how the right e-commerce solutions, inspiring content and top security tools, can enable you to attract a broad range of online spenders. So you can outshine the competition and outride the downturn.
"One of the things that attracted us to software-plus-services with Microsoft is its tradition of building enterprise-ready applications. There's an implicit understanding that they'll be robust, scalable and able to support our millions of customers." Paul Zimmerman, Head of Business Development, Play.com
Reasons to use Windows Server 2008 as a Web server (PDF 187KB)
Top tips
Discover how to create harder working Web sites.
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Web 2.0 & e-commerce tips
Cross referencing and contextualising products will really help potential customers to see the value in what they're about to invest in.
Tracking
If you offer a delivery-based business, consider integrating geo-tracking with an integrated delivery-status update map on your site.
Make it easy for the customer to buy
Clear calls to action are vital. It can never be too simple!Unless your product catalogue is very, very small, provide a quality search mechanism
There are well-known and very extensive guidelines, but you will still need some effort to make it an enjoyable and relevant experience.
Give your customers a reason to return
Integrating a wish-list into your shopping bag means you know which items your customers are interested in, so you can market to them directly. This also provides a place of interest which your user will return to view.
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Security tips
Protect your cookies
Use the httpOnly property for authentication cookies to mitigate the impact of cross site scripting exploits. This property means the cookie cannot be read by client-side scripts.If you're developing asp.net sites, don't rename web.config files to web.config.bak, web.config.old or similar.
Involve the client in at least a high-level overview of security requirements
That way they are sympathetic to the security efforts and are more likely to allocate budget to proper security practices right from the start.
User data validation
Validate all user-provided data before displaying it on a page to ensure it does not contain scripts.Manual security code reviews are invaluable
They will often show up any weaknesses that sometimes penetration testing will miss. -
Richer customer experience tips
Think early
User experience must be considered at every stage of a project, because each phase contributes to the final user experience.Design for accessibility
Strive to make sure that you site is still usable when stylesheets are not used (to cater for all users, including users with extra accessibility requirements). This also makes it easier to export the site to various browsing platforms.3 clicks is a myth
In practice, users' don't really care how many clicks they have to make as long as the options presented to them at each stage are clear and they can see that they are making progress towards their goal.Talk to your audience and get their feedback before you develop something new
User research can be very insightful.Separating structure (HTML) presentation (CSS) and behaviour (JavaScript) improves code maintainability and forward/backwards compatibility.
* Source: www.startups.com
