A few questions to ask yourself, does your web site describe your product or service in a succinct, compelling and visual fashion? Does it answer potential customers’ needs in, say, less than 8 seconds?

“Once they click to your Web site, you have between 5 and 8 seconds to convince them you can help,” says Larry Bailin, CEO of Single Throw Internet Marketing in Wall, N.J., and author of Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? (Larstan Publishing, 2007)

Your home page should include the bare essentials, Bailin says. “People are looking for what they typed in, with calls to action,” he says. “It’s critical that you address their issues on your home page. Get to the point and get rid of anything that doesn’t need to be there.”

Your Web site should be easy to navigate and straight to the point, and a “Contact Us” button should be prominent. To be more effective make sure your phone number is in an obvious place on every page.

Also, make sure your site appears high on search engines’ results pages. By including key words and terms in the sites code and meta tags and descriptions, your site will appear higher up on Google and other Search Engines. These days, a good web designer will be able to handle simple search engine marketing as part of the design and programming package. Still, it is up to you to know the best way to describe your products and service to potential customers and turn them into qualified sales leads.

“Don’t think too much about the bells and whistles,” warns Balin. “Think about the connection that you’re going to make and the way you’re going to help people. Make it clear to them and you will win every time.”