The two most common website mistakes
While not every business has a website yet there probably isn’t a business owner around who isn’t thinking about it. Many businesses do have websites and some of them probably regret it. Why, because they’ve made two very common mistakes.
First, they didn’t spend enough to make their website work for them. Second, their website doesn’t work for them.
What do I mean?
To have an appropriate web presence you have to allocate and appropriate budget. There are too many websites out there that look like, and probably were, made by the owner’s kids or maybe even by the owners themselves. They are outdated, amateurish, poorly planned, difficult to navigate and they just look terrible.
Saving money also means that many features that make a site easily found aren’t included. Sites aren’t search engine friendly. This is a common problem found even in sites developed by professional designers. Being search engine friendly doesn’t cost a lot of money, it just takes proper planning. The companies offering search engine optimization are mainly just fixing things that should have been done when the site was created… but that’s another story.
So, the first thing in website planning is allocate an appropriate budget.
The second problem with many websites is that the sites don’t work for the owners. I mean that the site was designed by a designer as a way to show off their formidable web design skills. Often very little thought is given to the customer. Too much emphasis is placed on Flash and bells and whistles and not enough on the message.
There was a time when “blink” was all the rage. Designers could and too often, would, make text and images blink. People got tired of that in a hurry.
Flash is now all the rage. Entire sites are made from Flash, often solely as a way for a designer to show off their skills and charge more money. It’s certainly not for the client’s customers.
Yes, sites made entirely in Flash have their place but only if it works for the customers.
Websites have to work for their owners. When you’re planning a site, a good developer, one with some marketing savvy, will ask you to define your target market and provide outlines of your products and services. Armed with a firm understanding of your business the developer will design a site that is visually pleasing and provides the right information to your audience.
Some Flash is fine but it’s also important to pay attention to colours, images, font size, graphics and photographs and make them appropriate for the audience.
Your site is not about your designer, it’s about you and your business.
To realize a positive benefit from your website you have to spend enough to make it work and you have to make it work for you and your clients.