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Top 10 web mistakes you don't want to make
(We thought about giving you the top
72 web mistakes, but then we remembered mistake No. 11: cramming to
much information on each page. So instead, here are the top 10 blunders
that company websites make:)
- Fail to convey your business immediately.
Think about how you surf the Internet. Odds are you're busy. If you're
at home, the TV is on in the background and your kids may be climbing
on you. If you're trying to appeal to a potential customer searching in
a similar situation, you don't want them to say, "I don't get it" and
move on to a business that gives them the information they need up
front.
- Forget to include relevant information.
If potential customers can't find your business hours, address and
contact information, then you're making it difficult for them to do
business with you. Include that information prominently on your home
page and wherever else makes sense on your site.
- Leave out pricing information.
Some small business just forget to include pricing on their sites.
Others avoid placing the price by their product, saving that news for
the "shopping cart." Don't do it, says Rieva Lesonsky, former editor of
Entrepreneur magazine and a blogger for Microsoft Office Live Small Business. "Pricing is huge if you are selling something," she stresses.
- Fail to understand your audience's internet skills.
If you're selling skateboards, you can probably get away with and
edgier web design. But that won't work for Melaine and Pat Nichilo, a
mother-daughter team that owns the Le Marche home accessories retail
store in Omaha, Nebraska. They recognize that some of their customers
aren's all that internet savvy so they designed their website
(LeMarcheOmaha.com) to reflect that fact.
"Try to have contact information on every page," Melaine suggests, "and
also try to organize the site with links to other pages listed in the
same place on each page. Also, we tried to say things like, 'Click on
the underlined links below to see...' Because some people don't know
that when words are underlined, they are a link."
Implementing recognized layout conventions like these may mean the
difference between an easily navigable page and one that's a navigation
nightmare.
- Design a website that is out of sync with your business.
If customers who step into your pet shop are greeted with lots of color
and evergy, your online presence should generate the same vibe. On the
flip side, if you're an electrician who seeks to convey your
competence, a whimsical website isn't the way to do it.
- Fail to think like a potential customer.
When you write the content for your website, make sure that you're
using words and phrases that potential customers might use to search.
"I call them 'ego keywords'," says Heather Lutze, who wrote the
soon-to-be-released book The Findability Formula: The Easy,
Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing (Wiley, 2009).
"They're those keywords that they believe people are using when
searching for the product or service that they're selling, but they're
knee-jerk and non-substantiated words."
Say you have a company that sells mortgages, so you make sure to say
"mortgages" and "mortgage company" on your site. But that's not enough.
Mention your state and city on that web page, however, and you'll
increase the odds that when someone types "mortgage company" and
"Montana" in a search engine, your business pops up.
- Put too many keywords on your site.
In search engine optimization there really can be too much of a good
thing. If you include the word "dentist" on your page 25 times - a
tactic called "keyword stuffing" - the computer programs that analyze
your page for search engine rankings (called "spiders" or "crawlers")
may determine your site isn't a credible destination for internet users.
- Link to the wrong sites.
Those spiders and crawlers are smart. If you're lucky enough to get a
well-read blog in your field to link to your site, the computer program
is going to recognize that as a sign that your site is a credible
source for internet users. And zoom - you've just shot up in the search
engine rankings.
If you are a plumbing business and certain vendors or plumbing blogs
link to your site, for instance, you'll increase the odds that your
site will appear higher in potential customers' online searches. But if
your sister-in-law links to you on her personal blog and persuades all
her friends to do the same, the spider may pick up on that and penalize
you.
- Overlook viral tools.
"Make sure you're taking advantage of viral tools, such as 'recommend
this page' buttons, so it is easy for people to share your page with
friends and family," Lesonsky says. "This can be an extremely useful
way to use customers as referral generators."
- Create a site that you can't easily change.
Not all business owners can immediately update information on their
websites. Relying on a web designer to make every little change can be
time-consuming and costly. "We use a software from our website host,
and it's very easy to use," Melaine Nichilo says. "I can upload photos
and change wording on a page in a matter of minutes."
(Excerpt from YourBusiness magazine)
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