The objective of this article is to identify the most common mistakes that I see during my reviews and what you can do to correct them.
1. Domain Names
This is probably one of the most important decisions an entrepreneur makes when they embark on creating a website. Do I use my company’s name or something else? Can I get away without using a .com extension? Where and how do I register my domain name? I’ve previously written an article on this subject where I get into much greater detail. But to summarize:
Always use a .com extension
Keep the name as short as possible
Make sure that the name is easy to say and remember
If you are researching names and see one you like, buy it before someone else does
If you already using a domain name and are not happy with it, you can always buy a second domain name and have it point to your website. Then over time you can phase out the old domain name.
2. Images
This is always a stumbling point for novice website developers. I often see images that appear distorted and take a very long time to load. These are images that are straight from the camera without being optimized. I also see background clutter taking the focus away from the image’s subject and placing text inside images.
Short of hiring a professional photographer and having them shoot and optimize your images, you have the following tools at your disposal:
You can purchase royalty-free stock photos from services like istockphoto.com. Be sure to purchase the lowest resolution if you are only going to use these images for your website.
Image editing software can be expensive: Photoshop is available for about $700 and Paint Shop Pro around $100. But there are some really great free tools like picnik.com that can be used to do the basics of cropping and optimizing for the web.
3. Navigation
Navigation should be the foundation for a successful website, yet I see many problems with it. For example, not having a consistent navigation on every page will confuse your visitors. You never want to make your visitors guess on how they should navigate to the next or previous page. "Mystery meat" navigation is another pet peeve of mine. This is where text navigation links are replaced with images that contain no words -- only blocks of color, icons, or designs that are not intuitive to the visitor. Finally, using menu-creating software that builds navigation systems in javascript can backfire. Search engines have trouble with javascript and will not be able to browse through your website and index all your pages.
Keep your navigation as simple as possible and you’ll reduce the possibility of confusing your visitors.
4. SEO Basics
A full discussion of search engine optimization is beyond the scope of this article, but I would like to touch on a few critical points:
Make sure you perform proper keyword research so you can be sure to include those keyword phrases into your web pages that your target audience is searching for. Services like seoresearchlabs.com offers a great service for $99
Make use of the title tag on each of your pages. Be sure to include the most important keyword phrase in the title tag. Continue to use these keyword phrases throughout the text on the web page
Avoid placing keywords in images on your pages. Search engines can’t read your images.
5. Copywritiing
Writing copy for websites is without a doubt the hardest thing an entrepreneur has to do when putting their website together. Copywriters are very expensive, but well worth it if you can afford it. If you are going to tackle the writing yourself, then be sure to keep the following in mind:
Focus on talking about the audience and their wants and needs. On the home page, talk about the visitor and less about your product or service. You can go into service and product details on interior pages.
Focus on customer benefits and not service/product features. Visitors want to know what’s in it for them. Address their concerns and you’ll have a more successful website.
Keep the acronyms and jargon to a minimum. Not everyone visiting your website will know as much as you do.
6. Browser Testing
Far too often, entrepreneurs will only test their website on their favorite or only web browser. One of the most challenging issues we have as web developers is to be sure that the websites we create will render accurately as possible on the major platforms and browsers. We have to be prepared to have the website display on PCs and Macs, iPhones and BlackBerrys, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome.
Use the services like crossbrowsertesting.com to be sure that your website displays properly in all major platforms and browsers. A free trial is available.
7. Regular Reviews
Once the business owner finishes the design, adds the content and launches the website, they are done right? Not quite. All website owners should go through their web pages to be sure that their content is accurate and up-to-date, that there are no broken links, and that their forms are working and they are receiving emails from them.
It is also a good idea to periodically change the content on your home page. If it never changes, you run the risk of looking stale to the casual visitor and to the search engines.
There is a lot that goes into building a successful website. By not making these seven common mistakes, you stand a much better chance of creating a successful website.
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