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5
Deadly Website Blunders
By Vishal Verma
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“I suck at this Internet work stuff. I have my site up and running and I'm constantly looking for customers but I get nothing. What am I doing wrong?”
This post by Carol Green on a popular bulletin board aroused my
curiosity. A cursory visit to her website became
the starting point for this article. |
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Blunder #1 – Overloading the web page.
Carol had added animations, sound and even a small video to her webpage. The video required a plugin
to be downloaded from the software
vendor's site for viewing. Within seconds of landing on her page, my browser got redirected to the vendors site for automatic installation of the
plugin. As a result, I did not get a chance to see the contents of her
web page. How many visitors do you think will take the trouble of coming back to see her site to see the video once the plugin is installed 5 minutes later?
Avoid adding content to your website that requires special plugins. Once a visitor is redirected from a website, the chances of him coming back are minimal.
Keep the bell and whistles on your site to a
minimum. Over 70% of home user and 20% of business users still use a 56 kpbs dial up connection to access the Internet. The faster your page downloads, the better the chances of your visitor hanging around to view it.
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Blunder #2 – Lack of Focus.
After the plugin got loaded, I made it a point to go back to Carol’s site and continue my analysis.
Her website mentioned that she was an event manager, interior designer, recruiter and was also associated with a national level MLM company. The first thing that came to
my mind was “I wonder what she’s really good at?”.
We always like to deal with experts, people who have more knowledge than us in their particular domain. And we are tend to think that a person cannot be an expert in several areas. The phrase “Jack of all trades – master of none” rings true. Would you trust a doctor whose business card reads
“Dr. Joe Harris
Doctor, Plumber, Computer Technician” ?
Identify what you are best at and position yourself as an expert in that field.
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Blunder #3 – Using a Free Hosting Provider For A Professional Site
Carol was using a popular free web hosting provider to host her website. The first thing I noticed on her page was a large banner right on top.
The banner had nothing to do with the services she was offering and was highly distracting. It was placed there by the free
web hosting provider as a means of revenue generation. It got me thinking “ Am I comfortable trusting a service provider who cannot afford to spend 5$ a month on marketing her service?” (You read it right, 5$ per month is all that it takes to register and domain and hire banner–free webspace)
Dan Sanders, an acquaintance of mine, has been working as a technician in the sound engineering and acoustics department of the University of Maryland for over two decades now. Putting his knowledge and experience to good use, Dan designed a range of speakers that vastly outperform comparable speakers available in the market. Dan figured he had a good thing going and decided to manufacture and market the speakers he had designed. He created a
website himself with his limited knowledge of a basic
HTML editor and image editing software. Within a few months, Dan’s site got listed on several search engines and he started getting several visitors a day.
However, in the past one year he has managed to sell just one pair of speakers!!
What went wrong when Dan’s site? He offers speakers that sound terrific and are cheaper than other comparable speakers in the market. His speakers should be heavily in demand, right?
There are a couple of reasons that explain his lack of success. |
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Blunder #4 – Creating an Amateur Looking
Website For Selling A Professional Product or Service.
Your website is often the first point of contact between your potential customers and your company. First impressions create lasting impressions. Am amateur looking website with tacky pictures, confusing navigation or a bad color combination can put off your customer.
To sell a professional product or service,
create a site that looks professional. |
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Blunder #5 – Complicated Copy.
Dan wrote the copy for his website himself. He figured no one could explain the
innovative features of his speakers better than
himself The copy he created explained in great detail how his speakers were superior to the competition.
However, the language and the terms used were highly technical and way beyond the level of understanding of an average visitor.
Prospects don't buy what they can't understand. Do not expect your customers to take the extra effort to understand what you are trying to convey.
Use simple language that can be understood by all. |
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