Top 10 Website Mistakes

Having a Website is an invaluable tool for business… but having a bad one might be worse than having none at all. Whether you’re creating a brand new Website, or trying to figure out why the one you have isn’t working, beware these costly mistakes.

1) Choosing the Wrong Domain Name

Just like naming a new baby, considerable thought should go into your choice of a Domain name. It doesn’t have to be your company name, and in fact, sometimes it shouldn’t be.

Web addresses should ideally contain keywords, be easy to remember and easy to type. If you’re a for-profit business, your Website address should end in dot-com.

2) Not Capturing Visitor Info

How will you know who’s using your Website? Every visitor who leaves your site without giving their contact information is an opportunity lost. It’s vital that you capture visitor information. Offer a free newsletter, special report or membership – anything that gives visitors an incentive to sign up. Remember, people rarely buy on their first visit to a website. It takes time to build up trust and credibility. You can then contact them again in the future. You’ll also entice more people if you promise you won’t sell their information to anyone else.

3) Bad Content

Most good sites are informational as opposed to commercial. Sure, you can sell things, but also give people lots and lots of information they can use.

Web readers skim. They look at headlines and subheads to decide whether to keep reading. So keep your copy short and Web friendly. And make it interesting. If you bore people, they won’t stick around.

4) Graphic Overload

Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to Web graphics. And yes, you can have too much of a cool thing. If it takes too long to load your fantastic new logo or play a video, visitors will move on.
If animation or a video tour would truly enhance your site it may be worth it, but bells and whistles sometimes drive away potential visitors.

5) Difficult Navigation

If links are broken or information doesn’t load properly, your visitors won’t stay very long and will likely, not come back. Make sure the nuts and bolts of your site are working and it’s not frustrating to navigate. It should be a pleasant experience and information should be easily located and accessed.

6) No Reason to Come Back

One of the best things about having a Website is the ability to keep it current and change content. That, however, takes maintenance and fresh information. A good Website is more than a static online brochure. Give your customers a reason to come back and see what’s new. Fresh content has the additional benefit of improving your search engine ranking.

7) Your Designer Runs Your Site

When you put your Website together, you need several different skills and perspectives involved. More times than not, you’ll need a variety of input from more than one source. Your Web designer probably shouldn’t be writing your Web copy, and someone needs to assess the site from a sales perspective.

8) You Don’t Exist Out of Cyberspace

Having an online presence is crucial today, but customers still live in the real, physical world and they like doing business in it. Don’t underestimate the power of physical things. If you have a brick and mortar store, show pictures of it on your Website. Provide customer testimonials, and have contact information on every Web page. Include an ‘About Us’ page and share information about your company, your history, your charitable activities -- anything that would give customers a sense of who you are.

9) It’s All About You

Yes, you want your customers to get to know you on your Website, but ultimately, what’s in it for them? In other words, what benefits are you offering them? You’ve got your “About Us’ page, now use the remainder of your site to tell customers what you can do for them. Give them free information, access to contests, newsletters and sale alerts.

10) No Plan or Strategy

You wouldn’t believe how many people create a Website and then sit back and wait for people to find it. Before you put it up in cyberspace, think about how people will get there. You need a plan to generate traffic to the site.

This involves a promotion strategy. The more promotion your site gets, the more profitable it becomes. There are ways to get free publicity Online and you can register with search services.