When either updating or building your website a factor you always have to work hard at is testing your links. This is so important for users of your website as if your links are broken or are linked to the wrong page or information then they cannot achieve the result they are after, be it information or product.

This can be very frustrating for any user and they will be put off straight away. Make sure the information is easily obtainable either through your menu or linked text contained within your content.

External links that point towards your website should also be carefully considered, it's not good enough to think that any external links pointing at your website are fine because that link will be aimed in a certain way with its wording. For instance if you have a car sales web site and one of your external links has the wording "the new Toyota 4x4 at low prices", well if a user clicks on this they expect to be taken to just that, they do not want to be put through to your home page (that doesn't contain that information) or the page on Ford cars. If your links work that way then what you will find is that users will click onto your web site and not find the information they desire, so guess what, they leave.

The implications of the above can be in some cases very dramatic, for instance that user that clicked on your link for Toyota 4x4's and ended up on your Ford page left your website but they still had the desire to see a Toyota 4x4, this leaves the door open to your competitors who have set their links up correctly. The other problem is the effect is has on your site analytics, your bounce rate will go up (the bounce rate is measured in % and shows how many people land on your website and then leave without going to any other pages). All in all this adds up to a problem.

To make sure your website survives in a competitive market place it is vital that these basics work because when you have landed a potential customer/ user onto your site you want to provide them with the best possible experience, this way they will return and just might not try out your competitors.

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