Some websites do a great job of promoting the business and pulling in revenue. If yours is falling short in making money or drumming up business, you could be doing a few elemental things wrong. Here are seven qualities all good websites have in common.

Easy navigation. You'll find this at the top of any list of good web design practices. A good rule of thumb is that it should never take more than three clicks for a customer to find anything on your site. Your navigation buttons should be arranged clearly either at the top of the page or along the left-hand side. If you have subcategories under each button, make sure they're placed logically.

Good SEO. You could have the best website in the world, and it would still be a flop if nobody could find it. Make sure your site is ranked well in the major search engines-Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Hiring a good SEO firm is one of the best investments you can make in your website's effectiveness.

Content for humans. Creating lots of relevant content is a cornerstone of good SEO design. But don't forget that it's people, not search engines, who are going to be buying your products or services. Make sure your content is well-written and not so crammed with keywords that it's unreadable. Generally, web readers have less patience with wordy text blocks than hardcopy readers do. So make your text concise, with lots of bullet points and subheadings. Make sure the information they're looking for is easy to read and understand, and your message is clear.

Easy on the background colors. White space is key to good visual design-make sure your website is spacious and not crammed with color. Easy readability is key-avoid dark background colors, even with light text colors. Above all, make sure there's a good contrast between your text and background colors. Otherwise, your site will be unreadable. Despite the many color combinations you can incorporate, it's still best to stick with plain old black text against a white background.

Streamlined graphics. If you have too many design elements in your site, it could give a cluttered appearance. Make sure there is a purpose for each design feature on your site-don't include any visuals that don't add value.

Easy on the animation. Studies consistently show that readers' eyes actively seek to avoid flashy animation. That "WOW" factor may impress other designers, but it's not doing anything for your customers. Reader pet-peeves include "click-to-enter" sites with animated graphics so high-tech that they have to download the latest version of Adobe to see them-if your readers have to download anything to see your site, 99% of them will leave immediately rather than bother.

Easy spending. You should never make it hard for customers to spend money. If you're selling a product, make sure there's a link on every page that will get your customers to the product pages. The same principles apply if you're trying to get customers to sign up for an e-newsletter-put the subscription link at the top of every page. Customers hate searching around for links, and will go to another site to spend money if they can't find the right links on yours.