Site Unseen? If your Web site gets more misses than hits, the hang-up may be your home page.

There's a warning on kids' video games that reads:"While watching certain images, you may experience dizziness,motion sickness or nausea." The grown-ups' version ofdigital fun, the World Wide Web, should also come with a warning:"While waiting for images to load, some viewers may experienceimpatience, frustration or distress." And flashing on everyhome page should be the caution: "The links on this page maycause some viewers to suffer from indecision, uncertainty orvacillation."

Because your home page is your e-commerce storefront, it has tobe welcoming and inviting. That means fast load times and easy sitenavigation. But how many times have you reorganized your penciltray, gone to the fridge or taken a bathroom break while waitingfor all those images to squeeze through the phone cord and ontoyour screen? Despite the supposed "Star Trek" speed oftoday's modems, graphic links and other images still take theirsweet time popping up. Take a good look at your Web site'sfirst impression, and be sure it's not such a laggard thatit's turning people off.

That's my message to Chad Tackett, a personal trainer inPortland, Oregon, who wrote recently. Tackett operates apay-to-view Web site called Global Health & Fitness (http://www.global-fitness.com)that offers counseling on weight loss and cardiovascular health tosome 5,000 online members. He wants to draw more people to his siteand wonders if there might be a quick fix. The answer is yes--andno. Tackett can quickly make his site more inviting with ahome-page makeover, but publicizing it will take more time.

Before:

This home page has a lot going on--but that may be its problem,says a Web-design expert.

1. Having several links tochoose from is desirable, but offering too many choices canoverwhelm visitors and may promote indecision.
Also, with 25 graphic links of type, load timeincreases substantially. This may turn off visitors who want quickresults.

After:

Still attractively presented, this streamlined version offersfewer choices and allows for a faster load time.

1. This two-tiered headlineoffers the company's core message and is animated to grabattention.

2. The testimonial offersquick credibility to this unique method of staying fit.

3. The links are now pareddown to four and are in plain text for faster loading.

Jerry Fisher is an advertising copywriter, consultant andauthor of Creating Successful Small Business Advertising($39.95), available by calling (800) 247-6553. If you'd likeJerry to consider your materials for a makeover in this column,send them to "Ad Workshop," BIZ Experiences, 2392Morse Ave., Irvine, CA 92614, or e-mail him at Jerry228@aol.com

Pointers From A Pro

Since I'm an avowed techno-twinkie who knows little aboutthe world of HTML code, CGI scripts and the like, I sought helpfrom one who wields these Web tools for a living. I've askedexpert Web designer Bill Blinn (bill@blinn.com) to offer Tackettsome professional advice on how to improve his site. Blinn runs hisown Web site design firm in Worthington, Ohio; is the technologyeditor for a Columbus, Ohio, radio station; and, for the past threeyears, has been a Web site design instructor at the annualCorelWORLD conference in San Diego. Here, in Blinn's own words,are his suggestions for http://www.global-fitness.com:

"Except for the home page, I like the overall design of theGlobal Health & Fitness site. But clutter and confusion at thefront door may drive some visitors away. Twenty-five graphic linksmake it hard to decide where to go. These links and a scrollingmessage box also make for a slow loading process. On a 28.8Kconnection (the modem speed most people use), this site displayssome text in 10 seconds, but the scrolling message takes 30 secondsto load, and the various link graphics didn't fill my 17-inchscreen until my stopwatch read 1:00:96. No home page should evertake a minute to load--period. Half that is too long, too, butit's easy for designers to make that mistake in their quest forhome page pyrotechnics.

"The problem is, the attention span of the typical Web usercan be measured in nanoseconds, so many will leave a site thatmakes them wait a full minute. Never use slow-loading graphiclinks, like those in Global Fitness' left and right panels,when you can offer a fast-loading text link. The middle text panelalso needs pruning to help it run faster. The persistent visitorwho drills down into this site will learn this is a place forpeople who want to lose weight but don't like diets and peoplewho want to be fit but are turned off by strenuous exercise. Wow!Let's get that concept in an animated marquee at the top.

"I'd also dump the scrolling text. It talks about afree vacation, but this is not what the site is selling. No matterhow good the freebie is, it won't help if you don'tinterest buyers in your primary product or service. Scrolling textalso presents three additional problems: it's hard to read, itlengthens the load time and some browsers can't display it.

"Another general rule: Give visitors no more than sixchoices on the home page. Organizing links into just a few majortopics, as I did on the Global Fitness home page, lets us put themon one side of the screen and eliminates indecision. By tossing out27 nonessential graphics (each using about 2,500 bytes), we save67KB. That's not much for someone with a fast connection, butas I noted earlier, most users still connect at 28.8K. Some evenstill have 14.4K modems. We can use the saved bytes to create ananimated GIF of the two key lines: "You can loseweight . . . Even if diets don't work foryou!" and "You can have a healthybody . . . Even if you don't likeexercise!"

"Also, let's cut the URL under the logo. Anyonewho's looking at your site already knows your URL. The siteuses Apple's QuickTime plug-in for some displays. Will thepeople visiting the site understand how to obtain and install theplug-in? And will their browsers support it? As you can see, Ibelieve in simplicity combined with a little flash.

"After making the changes, I uploaded the file andconnected to it via a standard modem. Load time for the whole page:eight seconds."

Thanks, Bill. Chad Tackett now has some new ways to spruce uphis cyber health club. But how does he get people to log on in thefirst place?

Every online storekeeper, including Tackett, wants to know howto lure more people to his or her Web site. Many experts wouldsuggest establishing a link to the major search engines (Excite,Yahoo!, etc.) that help people find information on specificsubjects. That's one good method. But another is to make a casethrough traditional media for getting fitness help online. Afterall, this is still a very new idea for the sweatsuited amongus.

Pioneering online bookseller Amazon.com. is a case in point. Ifirst heard references to Amazon in news stories that introducedthis new concept of buying books. They made me want to access thesite. This should be Tackett's immediate goal. He should e-mailpress releases to physical fitness publications and getinterviewed. Perhaps he can develop a member-for-a-day offer tolure in prospects. There's a vast audience of healthenthusiasts always awaiting news of a better way.