Stick to basics: the stakes are high for banks to retool their Web sites so that they are easier to find and simpler to use. The winning solution: focus on the design fundamentals.

• Author: Wetherington, Lee
• Position: Website Design - Survey

Now, more than at any time in the past, a bank's ongoing viability, success and soundness hinge on the usability, security and efficacy of your Web site. The Internet is becoming old hat, and many bankers are falling into the complacency that often accompanies the commoditization of a service channel. Big mistake.

Did you know that more than half of all customer interactions with banks are now done remotely? Or that online customers are 22 percent more profitable than branch-only customers? Or that attrition rates for online customers are 83 percent lower than for off-line customers? This is why Web sites matter now more than ever.

According to a recent CheckFree study, 75 percent of U.S. households are connected to the Internet, and 80 percent of these connections are broadband. The ubiquity of fast Internet access has made banking and bill payment the fastest-growing activities online. In fact, for the very first time, Internet-connected households are paying more bills electronically than with paper checks.

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Online bill-pay customers carry balances 50 percent higher than customers who pay bills via traditional means. Higher balances mean more core deposits, and in banking today, the competition for core deposits decides winners and losers.

The stakes are high. Timely deployment of new payments services like remote deposit and expedited bill payment are strategically crucial. Protecting core deposits, capturing Generation Y and acquiring new accounts all require getting it right when it comes to your Web site. But in 2007, what does "getting it right" mean?

It's a simple matter of focusing on the basics. The bottom line is that your Web site must be easy to find and effortless to use. Making this happen is the trick. In the spirit of getting it right, here are some timely tips.

'Findability'

Is the bank easy to find online? For the answer, search variations of the bank's name online. How high is the bank on the results list? Is it on the list at all? You can have the best Web site on the planet, but if customers and prospects can't find the bank online with a quick word search, it's all for naught.

Before you improve "findability," first ask yourself this simple question: Does the bank want to be found? And, if so, by whom? Identify the market, age, demographic, geography, and social/ civic habits of the consumers and businesses the bank wants to attract. And be sure to consider hacker radar, i.e., how conspicuous...