Dominate Your Local Market!

There are countless books, articles, blog rants and more about [tag]website faux pas[/tag]. Some are obvious – some are a little more subtle. But these all contribute to making or breaking your website as a [tag]marketing[/tag] tool for your business.

Here is my [tag]Top 10 List[/tag] of ways to kill the [tag]effectiveness[/tag] of your [tag]website[/tag] by turning off your visitors.

1. Misspellings and bad grammar – These are two mistakes that make you look a little more amateur than you would like to be. Modern spellcheckers are wonderful, but a spellcheck can’t tell the difference between “their” and “there” or “would” and “wood” so be sure you proof-read your copy. If you can, get a third party to proof-read because errors often remain invisible to the author even after several readings.

2. Broken images – We have all had that momentary sinking feeling when a web page that we checked on our local computer was fine, but now is showing broken images after we upload it. Bad image links, failure to upload the images, and uploading corrupted files are all errors that can happen, but be sure you check your web page after uploading so you can be confident that the images are all there.

3. Broken links – I’ve done them myself. All links need to be checked once they are uploaded. And don’t just roll over it with the mouse to see if the link shows up in the status bar. Click on it and be sure it takes you where you want your visitors to go.

4. Auto-start audio files – We have all been at work or in a quiet office when someone clicked on a link which opened a web page which had an annoying music or audio playing. I don’t know about you, but I have developed the fastest finger on the “Back” button ever known. And I will probably NEVER visit that site again. Audio and video are wonderful tools for marketing and information, but give your visitors a choice. Some pretty smart people claim that auto-start audio and video increase their conversion rate, but I willing to bet that those numbers are starting to erode as more and more websites feature these annoyances. First, don’t anger your customers.

5. Busy or dark-colored backgrounds – What can I say. These are just plain hard to read to any length of time. Nothing quite shouts “AMATEUR” like busy or cute backgrounds. And dark backgrounds with light-colored type might look pretty, but they can be a bear to read – and I want my visitors to read. The more they read, the more they buy.

6. Meaningless Flash intros – My “skip intro” finger is almost as fast as my “back” button finger is for auto start audio or video. Worse yet are Flash intros with tacky music (sorry folks, but unrequested music is ALL tacky). It has been several years since user surveys indicated that Flash intros lost 50% of website visitors without even finishing the intro. I am sure the numbers are a lot worse now. I haven’t seen a full Flash intro in years – nor the site behind it. I haven’t got the time to waste on that kind of crap – and neither do the vast majority of your visitors.

7. Improperly inserted photos – Photos used to enhance the viewer experience are wonderful – and they contribute to more sales, less returns and higher customer satisfaction. Use them wisely. Be sure to use code to wrap text around photos if appropriate. Nothing looks worse than a photo with one line of text next to it and the rest of the text dangling beneath. But I see this done all the time. Cheesy. When it comes to photos, do it right or don’t do it at all.

8. Inconsistent navigation – I hear “experts” talking all the time about how having a link to the page you are on is a mistake, but it is far worse to have the links move around on every page. This especially annoying with left-column navigation where a link is first, then gone, then second, etc. Keep it consistent. Making the link for the page you are viewing cold (dead), or using a different color to indicate that the link is for the page your are viewing is a better solution than removing it.

9. Building web pages for just one browser – Folks, nothing is more annoying than visiting a web page only to find out it is incompatible with your browser. And you are not using Fred’s Web Browser, you are using one of the common ones, like Firefox, Safari, Netscape, etc. This is a problem with many pages designed for Internet Explorer and tested ONLY in Internet Explorer(IE). Yes, the vast majority of pages are viewed in IE, but building pages that can’t be used by other browsers is like opening a store and putting up a sign that says “This store designed for right-handed people only – left-handed people spend you money somewhere else.” And before I get angry letters from left-handed people, it could be brown-eyed people, blondes or any other group. It just doesn’t make sense to make a large part of your potential market angry.

10. Spawning new windows – This, I admit, is a sin I have been guilty of. The theory is that if you use “target=_blank” in links leading to another site, you won’t lose the visitor from your site. Cow cookies! How many times have you finished a web session only to have your browser close ten or fifteen windows as it quits. Those windows belong to the folks who “didn’t want to lose you.” Only problem was, with the “back” button grayed-out by the opening of a new window, you were already lost – they couldn’t get back to you if they wanted to. Your visitors aren’t idiots. Give them a chance. They know where the “back” button is and how to use it – unless you hide it by spawning a new window. Now, to just track down all of the “target=”_blank” link I have created over the years.

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