The question of what distinguishes a good website from a bad one is one that I've been asking myself a lot lately when colleagues point out to me with good will that they don't have a particularly good website.

In my humble opinion, a website is good if it helps a company to achieve its goals.

A company often expects a website to

• to present itself professionally with the website
• to publicize the company's offerings
• to interest and attract new customers

But what do website visitors attach particular importance to? A study by the magazine "IT-Markt" (issue 10/2000) provides clarity here:

• 97% want content and offers of high quality,
• 92.8% attach importance to topicality,
• 85.5% attach importance to clarity,
• 82.1% prefer comprehensive content,
• 71.1% pay particular attention to the options for contacting the provider.

Images provide website visitors with emotions - text provides clarity. No one wants to be deceived - so it is easy to understand why visitors like to be presented with extensive text and, above all, facts on a website. Emotions can easily override facts and make other facts seem unimportant. Providers who convey messages primarily on an emotional level have the opportunity to manipulate their visitors in a very targeted manner. It is clear that this cannot be in the interests of the visitors - and yet it can be a website with which the provider achieves its goals by generating sales and loyal customers. However, I believe that this is not morally justifiable, because this method could be used to sell customers products that are bad - and the customers would not even realize that they are buying bad products. That's why Langmeier Software GmbH always wants to provide its visitors with clarity and facts - we deliberately refrain from emotional manipulation. If there were a seal of approval for this, Langmeier Software would be one of the first companies to receive it.