The success or failure of your website is not determined by how good your web designer is or how skilled you are at website marketing - it is in fact determined well before your website is written. Only 5% of websites will ever appear on page 1 or page 2 of search engines for their desired keywords hence try to avoid these mistakes before you begin writing your website:
(For resources supporting this article please see my blog: Top 60 Web Design Mistakes of 2009)
1 - No Keyword Research - Attempting to write a website without keyword research is effectively going blind. Good keyword research usually reveals many surprises and potential niche keywords that could be used to drive traffic. Poor use of keywords is the number 1 reason for website failure and it's totally avoidable through the use of keyword research tools - many of which are free to use.
2 - Lack of Competitor Research - without competitor research you won't know whether your page 1 competitors have 30 or 30,000 backlinks, and you won't know if their websites have 3 or 300 pages. The term 'mortgage' has 189 million pages listed in Google - moneysupermarket.com who are usually number 1 has 306,000 backlinks - hence it would be unrealistic for anyone other than a team of professional SEMs to compete. Simple research takes minutes and could save months of wasted effort and wasted cash.
3 - Same as the Next Guy - By making your website the same as everyone else you are not telling your visitor what's different, hence you are setting your website for failure. Plan to be different and insure you convey your differences quickly - think about improving your: content, visitor experience, site navigation & any special offers you might have when planning your website - making this effort in the planning stage really pays dividend later
4 - Lack of Quality Content - many people believe that just writing a website with a dozen or so pages is the recipe for website success - this simply is not true for most websites. If you have done your competitor research then you will know how many pages containing keyword relevant content your competitor's website has. Lack of planning for high quality keyword rich content will result in poor visitor experience, lower ranking & poor conversion rates.
5 - Inadequate Page Planning - it's like the old saying: 'fail to prepare - prepare to fail' - inadequate page planning will inevitably result in lower rankings. Use well researched keywords in: titles, descriptions, headings, footers, menu text, link text, paragraphs, page names & directories. Keep your layouts consistent & your menus easy to follow. If you have the necessary skills prepare to write your website in scripting language such as ASP/PHP for greater control of layout & functionality & consider building in CMS so pages can be added or removed easily.
6 - No Plan for Marketing - most of us by now know that the myth of 'write a website & the visitors will come' is not true. The objective for most websites should be to aim for Page1 or Page2 of search engines. By doing your competitor research you will know how big a hill you have to climb un order to match/beat the competition. Being unrealistic with the time/budget for this task will make even the best website fail.
7 - Cheap Hosting Overseas - unless your site is geared more to international traffic rather than local or national then hosting overseas is a bad idea. Cheap overseas hosting will lead to longer load times & will affect your ranking in search engines. Plan to host your website in your home country - use a fast well recommended hosting service with 24/7 support - be sure to check the hosts IP address to insure the servers really are based where the host claims they are. Many search engines today use Geo Targeting in some manner.
8 - Poor Colour Choice - your website is not the place to express yourself - you have less than 3 seconds to make your first impression - hence choose a colour scheme that is perfect for your website - try colour matching your photos/logos/artwork & avoid drab/luminous colours. Take care when designing websites geared for other countries as certain colours have cultural significance & insure that your colours are web safe. Poor planning in this area is will make your website look amateur.
9 - Choosing Strange Fonts - could make your site hard to read especially for people with poor vision. Wherever possible use basic fonts such as Arial & Helvetica. If you must use alternative fonts insure the text is large enough, clear & it matches your website theme.
10 - Selecting your URL & TLD - wherever possible choose a domain that contains your researched keywords then select the correct domain suffix (TLD) - use .co.uk for a UK company .com for e-commerce - you will have trouble indexing an Indian domain (eg .co.in) in the UK . Here are come common UK domain suffixes:
.com - commercial/ecommerce website (UK &/or International)
.co.uk - corporate website
.net - larger network website - typically used by web hosts
.biz - almost purely for business-to-business sites
.org.uk - non-profit organisation or group / charity
.info - informational sites - non e-commerce
.name - for an individual or organization
.ltd - requests only accepted from ltd companies - 15254
(For resources supporting this article please see my blog: Top 60 Web Design Mistakes of 2009)
1 - No Keyword Research - Attempting to write a website without keyword research is effectively going blind. Good keyword research usually reveals many surprises and potential niche keywords that could be used to drive traffic. Poor use of keywords is the number 1 reason for website failure and it's totally avoidable through the use of keyword research tools - many of which are free to use.
2 - Lack of Competitor Research - without competitor research you won't know whether your page 1 competitors have 30 or 30,000 backlinks, and you won't know if their websites have 3 or 300 pages. The term 'mortgage' has 189 million pages listed in Google - moneysupermarket.com who are usually number 1 has 306,000 backlinks - hence it would be unrealistic for anyone other than a team of professional SEMs to compete. Simple research takes minutes and could save months of wasted effort and wasted cash.
3 - Same as the Next Guy - By making your website the same as everyone else you are not telling your visitor what's different, hence you are setting your website for failure. Plan to be different and insure you convey your differences quickly - think about improving your: content, visitor experience, site navigation & any special offers you might have when planning your website - making this effort in the planning stage really pays dividend later
4 - Lack of Quality Content - many people believe that just writing a website with a dozen or so pages is the recipe for website success - this simply is not true for most websites. If you have done your competitor research then you will know how many pages containing keyword relevant content your competitor's website has. Lack of planning for high quality keyword rich content will result in poor visitor experience, lower ranking & poor conversion rates.
5 - Inadequate Page Planning - it's like the old saying: 'fail to prepare - prepare to fail' - inadequate page planning will inevitably result in lower rankings. Use well researched keywords in: titles, descriptions, headings, footers, menu text, link text, paragraphs, page names & directories. Keep your layouts consistent & your menus easy to follow. If you have the necessary skills prepare to write your website in scripting language such as ASP/PHP for greater control of layout & functionality & consider building in CMS so pages can be added or removed easily.
6 - No Plan for Marketing - most of us by now know that the myth of 'write a website & the visitors will come' is not true. The objective for most websites should be to aim for Page1 or Page2 of search engines. By doing your competitor research you will know how big a hill you have to climb un order to match/beat the competition. Being unrealistic with the time/budget for this task will make even the best website fail.
7 - Cheap Hosting Overseas - unless your site is geared more to international traffic rather than local or national then hosting overseas is a bad idea. Cheap overseas hosting will lead to longer load times & will affect your ranking in search engines. Plan to host your website in your home country - use a fast well recommended hosting service with 24/7 support - be sure to check the hosts IP address to insure the servers really are based where the host claims they are. Many search engines today use Geo Targeting in some manner.
8 - Poor Colour Choice - your website is not the place to express yourself - you have less than 3 seconds to make your first impression - hence choose a colour scheme that is perfect for your website - try colour matching your photos/logos/artwork & avoid drab/luminous colours. Take care when designing websites geared for other countries as certain colours have cultural significance & insure that your colours are web safe. Poor planning in this area is will make your website look amateur.
9 - Choosing Strange Fonts - could make your site hard to read especially for people with poor vision. Wherever possible use basic fonts such as Arial & Helvetica. If you must use alternative fonts insure the text is large enough, clear & it matches your website theme.
10 - Selecting your URL & TLD - wherever possible choose a domain that contains your researched keywords then select the correct domain suffix (TLD) - use .co.uk for a UK company .com for e-commerce - you will have trouble indexing an Indian domain (eg .co.in) in the UK . Here are come common UK domain suffixes:
.com - commercial/ecommerce website (UK &/or International)
.co.uk - corporate website
.net - larger network website - typically used by web hosts
.biz - almost purely for business-to-business sites
.org.uk - non-profit organisation or group / charity
.info - informational sites - non e-commerce
.name - for an individual or organization
.ltd - requests only accepted from ltd companies - 15254
About the Author:
The author has 12 years experience as an Ecommerce/Web Design Consultant and works with designers for many large corporations such as Coca Cola, Npower & Vodafone. See web design Cheltenham for more information.
