TOP 10 WEBSITE MISTAKES
by Karyn Greenstreet
After being a website designer and user since 1996, I'm still seeing people make
the same mistakes on their websites.
Here's a list of the ones that will drive people away from your site and cause you
to lose business (and your reputation as a professional business person).
1. "Under construction" signs on your site. Websites are intended to be Living
Documents. They are supposed to change and grow. Putting an "under construc-
tion" sign on your website marks you as an amateur. If your site isn't ready to
show to the public, don't publish it to a public location.
2. Visitor counters. Visitors generally don't care how many other people have
visited your site. If the visitor counter shows a low number, that can be a
psychological turn-off to people; if it's too high, people might believe that you've
forged the number. Just take the visitor counter off your site. If you really need
to know how many people have visited your website, check your statistics. (If
your hosting company doesn't provide good statistics, get a new one!) Check
out our article on how to choose a hosting company:
http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles.htm
3. Lack of copyright statements. Everything you write, and your website design
itself, is copyright-able. Make sure you include copyright statements on every
page, and update the year in the copyright statement as appropriate. Nothing
screams "Not up-to-date" like having a copyright statement from 1997 on your
site.
4.Overuse of technology. There are some really great, cool and wild techie things
you can program into your website. But it they are going to distract the visitor
from your message, or if they're going to slow down the loading of your page,
ditch the extra technology in favor of simplicity. This includes large Flash shows,
animated graphics and other large graphics, as well as scrolling text and audio
that comes on as soon as the person hits your website.
5. Passive verbs. Use active verbs and active sentences when writing your site's
copy. Active verbs are powerful and lend energy to your site. Need to brush up
on using active verbs? Check out this site:
http://essayinfo.com/tips/active_verbs.php
6. Long sentences. When people read long sentences, they have to keep the first
part of the sentence in their mind when reading the last part. People are easily
distracted. Help your visitors by keeping your sentences short and crisp.
7. Long pages. Studies show that most people will not read long page of text off
of their computer monitor. They'll either print it or they'll scan it looking for major
topics and bullet points. Keep your pages short. If you have a lot to say, consider
creating a series of pages that explain your topic, with good navigation between
each page.
8. Not identifying the benefits of your products or services. People make pur-
chases for two reasons: to get rid of pain or to get pleasure. People want to know
how your products and services will help them with their specific pain/pleasure
situation. Instead of telling them that your widgets are made from steel and are
3 inches across, tell them that your widgets will stop their faucets from leaking
for a lifetime.
9. Forgetting to ask the visitor to do something. In marketing, this is known as a
Call To Action. Tell your visitors what you want them to do next. Sign up for my
newsletter. Call me. Order today.
10. Believing in "build it and they will come." It might have worked in the movie
Field Of Dreams, but in the reality of internet marketing it's: build it, MARKET
it, and they will come. Once you've built your website you have to tell people
about it. Think of your website the same way you'd think of a box of marketing
brochures: if you don't get them into the hands of people, they're not worth the
money you spent to create them.
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Karyn Greenstreet is a self-employment expert and small business coach. She shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to maintain motivation, stay focused, prioritize tasks, and increase revenue and profits.
Visit her website at www.PassionForBusiness.com
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