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10 Common Website Errors By: Michael Smith
1. Not knowing who your domain name is registered to.
Do not assume that, just because your business is registered in your name, the domain name will be automatically registered to you as well. Make double-sure that the domain is registered to you and noone else. Some unscrupulous designers out there register domain names to themselves so they can literally hold you to ransom should you wish to switch providers. BE WARNED.
2. Not knowing who owns the files and all other graphics that go into your website.
Your files must be copyrighted to you. At the very least you must have access to your files at all times. I have seen people stop their website hosting with certain companies and fail to retrieve their files. In most cases this means re-doing all the design work over again and usually this is very expensive and time consuming.
3. Lack of focus on your customers' perspective.
It is all well and good to be search engine friendly and achieve no. 1 for your keywords but after you reach no. 1 you still need to sell to your prospects. Your customers are the ones that pay you not Google, so make sure you talk to them in their language and sell to them. Do not write your sales copy based on what your directors want but on what your customers want.
4. Pages that take ages to load.
Your prospects are busy and do not have all day to wait for your fancy graphics and other unusual items to load. Make sure your website provides the information required quickly without too much fanfare or other delays. Google, Twitter, eBay and Amazon are very successful websites because they provide the information you require exactly as you require it.
5. Too much flash (or flash only) on your website.
Do not put too much in your flash intros or other such pages and subject your prospects or visitors to long waiting times. Flash gives the search engines a hard time and can cost you that no.1 search position simply because search engines cannot index the flash part. Use flash moderately or avoid it altogether if you can.
6. Not capturing your visitors' details.
You have worked so hard to get traffic to your website and they have visited. The thing is not everyone is ready to buy today so capture their names and email addresses and keep them informed of your specials, new products and so on so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you.
7. Poor use of colours.
Make sure your colours do not clash and scare off potential customers. Your website has to be eye-friendly so at least your visitors can read what's in your pages or sales copy.
8. Non-standard navigation or bad linking system.
Make sure your website navigation is easy to understand and if something is not on the homepage make sure visitors can easily find it. Try to keep everything less than 3 clicks away from your homepage.
9. WebPages that are never updated.
Always keep your websites fresh and interesting. Use an easy to use CMS and keep your visitors coming back because they know there is something else to see on your website. I recommend only using website designers that will arrange for an easy-to-use CMS so you can change and update your website yourself at anytime saving you time and money. I know you may be busy but you need this control on your website and it is not necessarily an everyday thing anyway. Most CMS systems are so easy to use that if you can write an email or use Microsoft Word, you can easily operate these.
10. Lack of traffic.
It surprises me how, in this day and age, very sound businesspeople still believe in the old "once you build it they will come" myth. Unfortunately this does not work anymore. You need to actively attract visitors to your website. There are a lot of methods you can use for this and it is very important that you get traffic. Without traffic you do not get visitors and without visitors you do not get sales. Without sales … well… you get the picture. You can use search engines, articles, email marketing, offline methods and so on to get traffic to your website.
Michael Smith is the owner of Jax Internet in Glasgow Scotland specialising in website design and hosting for small businesses.
Do not assume that, just because your business is registered in your name, the domain name will be automatically registered to you as well. Make double-sure that the domain is registered to you and noone else. Some unscrupulous designers out there register domain names to themselves so they can literally hold you to ransom should you wish to switch providers. BE WARNED.
2. Not knowing who owns the files and all other graphics that go into your website.
Your files must be copyrighted to you. At the very least you must have access to your files at all times. I have seen people stop their website hosting with certain companies and fail to retrieve their files. In most cases this means re-doing all the design work over again and usually this is very expensive and time consuming.
3. Lack of focus on your customers' perspective.
It is all well and good to be search engine friendly and achieve no. 1 for your keywords but after you reach no. 1 you still need to sell to your prospects. Your customers are the ones that pay you not Google, so make sure you talk to them in their language and sell to them. Do not write your sales copy based on what your directors want but on what your customers want.
4. Pages that take ages to load.
Your prospects are busy and do not have all day to wait for your fancy graphics and other unusual items to load. Make sure your website provides the information required quickly without too much fanfare or other delays. Google, Twitter, eBay and Amazon are very successful websites because they provide the information you require exactly as you require it.
5. Too much flash (or flash only) on your website.
Do not put too much in your flash intros or other such pages and subject your prospects or visitors to long waiting times. Flash gives the search engines a hard time and can cost you that no.1 search position simply because search engines cannot index the flash part. Use flash moderately or avoid it altogether if you can.
6. Not capturing your visitors' details.
You have worked so hard to get traffic to your website and they have visited. The thing is not everyone is ready to buy today so capture their names and email addresses and keep them informed of your specials, new products and so on so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you.
7. Poor use of colours.
Make sure your colours do not clash and scare off potential customers. Your website has to be eye-friendly so at least your visitors can read what's in your pages or sales copy.
8. Non-standard navigation or bad linking system.
Make sure your website navigation is easy to understand and if something is not on the homepage make sure visitors can easily find it. Try to keep everything less than 3 clicks away from your homepage.
9. WebPages that are never updated.
Always keep your websites fresh and interesting. Use an easy to use CMS and keep your visitors coming back because they know there is something else to see on your website. I recommend only using website designers that will arrange for an easy-to-use CMS so you can change and update your website yourself at anytime saving you time and money. I know you may be busy but you need this control on your website and it is not necessarily an everyday thing anyway. Most CMS systems are so easy to use that if you can write an email or use Microsoft Word, you can easily operate these.
10. Lack of traffic.
It surprises me how, in this day and age, very sound businesspeople still believe in the old "once you build it they will come" myth. Unfortunately this does not work anymore. You need to actively attract visitors to your website. There are a lot of methods you can use for this and it is very important that you get traffic. Without traffic you do not get visitors and without visitors you do not get sales. Without sales … well… you get the picture. You can use search engines, articles, email marketing, offline methods and so on to get traffic to your website.
Michael Smith is the owner of Jax Internet in Glasgow Scotland specialising in website design and hosting for small businesses.
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