Website Design Mistakes

Does Your Website Have these Flaws?

“If you build it, they will come." That may have worked for Kevin Costner, but it does not work on the Internet. 

Design is Key. Your site must be built from a marketing standpoint. Your website will not convert leads to clients unless it IS built on a solid marketing foundation. There are five main support structures: design, usability, search optimization, content and maintenance. All five of these rules must also follow the 3 click rule. Let’s look at how your internet marketing efforts can fail, simply because your website was built on a poor foundation.

Unpleasant Design or Irrelevant Design

“I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it.” Justice Stewart

Visitors may not consciouslynotice great design, but they’ll definitely click away when an unpleasant page appears. Your website represents your brand, your face... and if your website makes a lousy first impression, it will actually undermine your Firm’s credibility. Search engines track bounce rates and if your visitors bounce out to a competitor, it hurts your site’s ranking, which increases your cost per click. Visitors feel, if you your attention to detail is so poor, you will fail to represent them effectively.

Bad Layout

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works” Steve Jobs

A good layout for your content boils down to a single idea: ‘KISS’ keep it simple for visitors, no matter how detailed your site is. Visitors want to intuitively know how to get around your website. You need to give them a logical sequence of pages, along with search tools that make it easy to find what they want. They came to your site for three things. Don’t make them work too hard, be aware of the 3 click rule and don’t make them wait. They’ll hurry off to another site if they can’t get what they want, FAST.   

No Attention to SEO

“Focus on providing a great user experience so visitors will come back and share it with their friends and family.  A great looking site which provides value to visitors will end up ranking much better in the long term than one which spends more time obsessing over SEO practices.” Matt Cutts – Google

  “Search Engine Optimization” is a billion dollar business but a good website is hard to find if it’s not speaking the language of search engines. Anyone can stuff your keywords into content, but there are more cost-saving steps you can take to improve your profile and page rank. Content is king, keep that in mind. If your content is not aligned with your services, search engines will not recognize you as the expert you are. We always listen to Matt Cutts, the last word in SEO.

Use a Wordpress site. Google loves them! And it will NOT cost you a fortune to update or add cool options!

• Use important keywords appropriately – but no stuffing. Use LSI keywords as much as possible and add content weekly.
• Make your links descriptive and don’t forget to include keywords in it.
• Don’t forget your media/images, they need optimizing also.

Lacking Good Relevant Content

“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”  Wendy Piersall

Visitors are hungry for information, which is why they are on your site. If your website doesn’t have any relevant information substance, they won’t stick around. Don’t talk over their heads, either. The information you provide should be relevant and useful to the user.

Here are keys for interesting content:

• Remember to speak to your audience as if speaking to a friend.
• Make sure it’s grammatically correct and carefully edited. Have someone you trust review it before posting.
• Keep it organized. Divide your text into short paragraphs, use bullet points, bolding, etc. to make it easy on the eye. FAQ’s are TERRIFIC!
• Be sure it’s clear, compelling and concise. Don’t write long paragraphs that the visitor will not finish.
• Remember the 3 buying personalities – Analytical – Emotional – Price   Appealing to all three is a winning combination.

No Maintenance & Upkeep Routine

“If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” John Wooden - Hall of Fame basketball coach

As your legal skills, your website should always be a work in progress. Stale content, broken links, slow loading or site downtime will turn your visitors to your competitors. You should be changing images, text, posts and promotions monthly. Be pro-active. Find potential problems before your users notice them, and hire good technical support to keep your site glitch-free. Repairs once a site has been hacked are costly, keep maintenance current. This service is a mere $100/month.

Don’t let these bad practices undermine your website’s effectiveness. 

WORDPRESS WINS as a the BEST Website platform. 

Build it well and visitors will not only come, they’ll stay and convert into clients.

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