10 Reasons Why Your Website Failed

Tuesday 14th, April, 2009

  1. You Hired Your Neighbor’s Son
    You know he is not a professional but you know you can save a buck by using him. After paying him next to nothing, you find that the website he created hurts more than it helps. You find yourself taking your URL off your stationary and business cards and not mentioning your website to your clients. You’ve lost more than the couple hundred dollars you spent on it, you’ve lost the potential of a successful website until you have it redone.
  2. You Outsourced Your Work
    Another tempting alternative to what might seem to be costly work inside the country. There are two reasons why this alternative is very risky and painful for you and your business. First, communication problems. You will either have a hard time understanding or being understood by the firm or freelancer you hired and most likely will not be able to find a civil time to be able to communicate over the phone. Second, like so many have already found, you may be promised everything and receive a small portion of what you expected.
  3. You Used Hosting Software to Easily Build Your Own Website.
    How hard can building a website be? The honest answer is “not very hard at all.” HTML is one of the easiest things to learn. You can find tutorials or take a class that can get you started building a website within hours. Templates make it even easier. Just about anyone can create a website, but being able to build a website that brings success takes a lot of experience and a lot of talent. If you’ve decided to try it out as a hobby, go for it. I personally find very few things more enjoyable than crafting new designs and programming new systems. But if you want a website that gets results, turn it over to the professionals.
  4. Your Website Design Sucks
    If you don’t take your business seriously, how can you expect your clients to do the same. Your visitors are looking for the latest and greatest products or services. In short, get with it, or fail.
  5. The First Page on Your Website Says, “Click to Enter”
    It is starting to become rare to see these pages, for good reason. Visitors despise them. Have better respect for your visitors and you’ll see more of them stick around.
  6. You Can Count the Number of Pages on Your Site with One Finger.
    Limiting the content on your site is a very ignorant maneuver. There are so many opportunities your website can take advantage of, but without content virtually none of it is possible. Content is king, build it and they will come.
  7. Your Site is Boring
    If your site can’t create interest in your product or services, your website will lose to the competition. Focus your attention on benefits, not features. Create page titles that make your audience want to learn more. Show how the application of your product or service will change your audiences’ lives in some positive way. Design some sort of mystery that needs investigating on your site. Build your customers interest or fail.
  8. You thought a Web Designer Was Enough.
    Whats the problem with this picture: You build a state of the art sports arena, its beautiful, has many sought out commodities and was built in Antarctica. You may ask, “What’s the point of a sports arena if you aren’t going to have anyone use it?” A silly scenario, but a common pitfall for many websites out on the Internet, because they have a professionally made website with no budget for marketing. When budgeting out your website, make sure to appropriate sufficient funds to attract an audience to it. Use the following flexible rule of thumb for a website budget: a quarter of your budget for design and branding, a quarter for development, a quarter for public relations and SEO, and a quarter for advertising.
  9. Your Website is Too Generic
    This is why web templates can be a very bad move. If your web design and content are generic and bland, you aren’t portraying a well conceived and implemented brand image. Branding is about determining your companies persona. A well branded website builds trust with your visitors and shows competitive advantage. In short, differentiate yourself from your competitors or fail.
  10. You Didn’t Monetize Your Site
    If you didn’t plan out the primary and secondary objectives of your website, then your website is probably spinning your visitors in circles. Give your website an objective, and every aspect of it should be working to accomplish it. If you’re trying to sell a product, make it appealing and easy for them to buy it. If you want them to call you on the phone do the same. Too often a website is about a company and loses the potential influence it can have to make your company more money. If you aren’t getting what you need from your visitors, your website has failed.

Source: WebDevNews.net