April , 2009  - Issue Number 46

10 Ways to Tank Your Website!

There have been times that I look at commercial websites and wonder why they even bother! I know all the excuses:

• I did it myself with a "do it yourself" service . . . they said it would be effective!
• Can't afford to hire a professional!
• Why hire someone? My cousin's; brothers; fiancée has a sister that took a class in high school and can build one for me!
• I know someone who is going to college and is majoring in web design . . . surely they know as much as a seasoned professional!
• I don't know much about computers; so I don't want to mess much with a website!

Building a highly effective website is a lot of work, it takes alot of time . . . and it is never done! (Sorry, no words of compassion to downsize the scale of what is involved in a developing an effective web presence!)

There is always more that can be done to improve the customer experience. Lets face it the customer experience is what will make the difference.

• Did they find what they were looking for?
• Was the call to action effective?
• Was the checkout process easy?

I completely understand that sometimes the availability of dollars to hire a professional is a problem. I want to encourage every business owner to put something out there on the web . . . even if it is something that is less than perfect. It is at least a place to start.

In the meantime, if you find yourself with a poorly developed website or perhaps an older website that hasn't kept up with current trends . . . here are 10 things to work on until you can work the dollars into your budget to hire a professional.

• Too many ads/Wrong kind of ads 
  Business sites that sell ad space as an additional source of revenue are questionable in my mind.  Your website should be selling your product and not others! Placing ads on your own site for your own products or services is a good thing . . . it is called "up-selling" and is a solid marketing practice.
• Confusing Navigation
  Keep your navigation clean and simple. Don't shake things up by changing navigation structures on each page or even by breaking from standard navigation practices. People are at your website to find information quickly and easily. Don't make it hard for them, they will leave your site!
• Broken Links
  Make sure all your links are working properly. Nothing is more irritating than not being able to get to the information you are looking for! If your links are broken it will reflect upon your business. If you have changed your page names make sure you redirect them properly so any existing external links go to the new page. (Like from Google or Yahoo)
• Slow Load Times
  Generally speaking people are not at your website to be entertained . . . they are looking for information! Big fancy graphics with really cool special effects tend to distract and suck up bandwidth making your website load very slowly. If you want to entertain your viewers . . . spend 3 million dollars on a 30 second superbowl spot . . . most people remember the "entertaining ads; but don't have a clue what they were advertising!
• Blocked Content
  Put a lot of thought into whether or not you want to put content behind registration pages requiring the viewer to register to receive access.  You will receive far fewer viewers to the content . . . but it may also weed out the tire kickers giving you a better qualified lead.  This one can easily go either way on you!
• Worthless Site Search Feature
  Make sure your search feature captures as many keywords as possible! If someone types a word or phrase into the search feature and it comes up blank . . . they have just been told that you do not answer their needs and they are GONE!
• Difficult Checkout Process
  Keep is short and simple. A little extras like, "People who bought this product also purchased . . . " may help with up-selling. If you over do it people will abandon the cart and never return to your website. I found one online store that had 15 additional up-selling screens before the checkout process was complete . . . I got to the last page and abandoned the cart; just to be ornery . . . I would have abandoned it much earlier, but I was curious to see how far it went on. It took me 20 minutes to check out!
• Poor SEO
  Search Engine Optimization that is not done or done poorly will tank your website right out of the gate. If they can't find it, they can't buy from you!
• Poor Marketing
  Search engines only account for about 50 to 60% of your sites "find-ability"! You need to advertise your web address everywhere! Put it in any ad you run, on your business cards and truck . . . put it on your forehead if you think it will be noticed! (Well, OK maybe the forehead is a bit extreme.)
• Failing to Keep the Content Current
  Search engines pay attention to the content, so do viewers. Why would anyone go back to your website or refer it to anyone else if you have poor content that never changes! Content is king when it comes to websites . . . the content is what people are looking for!

In today's marketplace an effective website is a necessity for virtually everyone. It will take a great deal of work to develop a top of the line web presence so keep plugging away at it and find a way to hire a professional. No one is an expert at everything, pass of the stuff you are weak with . . . especially the important stuff!

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Tip of the Month!

Do Your Spring Cleaning!
The weather is turning warm and there is soon going to be a wave of garage sales everywhere as households clear out all the un-used items from garages, attics and basements! You should be doing the same for your business!

Take advantage of this rush of shoppers to clear out your businesses closets. Dust off all the items you have stuffed into all the creative storage places you have found over the years and get rid of anything you don't need or just plain forgot you had. Sell anything of value and pitch the rest!

How do you move items? Here are a few ideas:

• Host a garage sale or include your items in a friends garage sale!
• Post your items in the free classified section of www.ShopHutchinsonMN.com!
• List your items on Craig's List!
• List your items on Ebay!
• List them in the local paper's classified section!

Clean up your spaces and let others benefit that may be looking for those items you no longer need!

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Success Stories!

Shut Down and Blocked!
A business called us that had been hosting a website on another provider's server. They had started to receive a larger than usual number of visitors to the website and exceeded the allotted bandwidth for the hosting package they had purchased. The website disappeared and they discovered that the hosting provider shutdown the website blocking them from being displayed on the internet!

The business owners were understandably upset. They were provided no warning or given a grace period to adjust their hosting package . . . they were simply removed from the internet! The owner asked me a simple question, "Is that normal?"

My answer to him was, "Apparently for them it is;  had you been hosting with us we would have called to notify you of the overage and worked with you to correct the situation without turning off your website." 

His response . . . "Can you host this website for us?"

My response, "Yes, we certainly can."

We loaded the website onto our server, tested it and initiated the transfer in short order. They no longer have to worry about discovering their website is missing again!

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