WEB MEDIA SCHOOL session - 65 The Top TEN Mistakes People Make Online.
Mistake #10 - Not Reserving Your Domain Name
Over 4 million domain names have already been registered. Thousands of new registrations are made every day! How long do you think it will be before your name is gone and someone else is using it?
Mistake #9 - Trusting Your Internet Marketing Efforts to a Computer User
Let's face it, the ability to make the computer work does not qualify someone to dictate a company's marketing strategy. Most companies, because they don't understand marketing on the web, think that someone who can make the web page come up on the screen can get people to buy... but that is simply not the case!
Mistake #8 - No Automatic Follow-Up Mechanism Installed on the Website
Most people, if they are lucky enough to have someone contact them off their website, waste lots of time in follow-up that is either completely unnecessary or ineffective. You must have a way to follow up with e-mail inquiries for information that gives them what they need without wasting your time or theirs. Autoresponders are the basic tool for distributing information and gathering e-mail leads. .... On most of our pages!
Mistake #7 - Thinking Slick Graphics Will Motivate People
Another major boo-boo is thinking that pretty pictures will get people to pay attention... they are not showing up to see glamour shots of you or high-cost graphics that load too slow. .. They lose interest before the pictures appear on the screen. Make sure your site loads fast and is informative. . All of ours load lightning fast!
Mistake #6 - Thinking that having a "Contact Us" button alone will get responses from potential customers.
"Contact Us" puts all of the responsibility on the person that is visiting the site. Give people many different opportunities to ask for additional information. *Click here for a top 10 list - *Fill out here for our value added e-mail updates - *Go here for more information .... We do this on all our pages!
Mistake #5 - Not Promoting Your Website Offline
You must budget for promotion of your website. There are no guarantees when it comes to search engines! There is, however, a guarantee when it comes to your mouth, your secretary's mouth, your assistant's mouth, your signs, your ads, your flyers, your yellow page ads and everything else you do. You must let people know about your website in your offline marketing in order to get them into your online website.
Mistake #4 Not Maintaining Your Website and Keeping It Fresh
If you don't keep your website fresh and up-to-date all the time there is very little chance you can build a meaningful relationship with anyone online. When you are preparing your online budget you must allocate sufficient resources (time and money) to maintain your website.
Mistake #3 - Build It and They Will Come... Not!
4 years ago you could have a website and make money just from the fact that you had a website and others did not. Now that the price of entry is so affordable, everybody can have a website. You must have a clearly defined online image with a website and promotion strategy to match.
Mistake #2 - Not Knowing What Your Competitors Are Doing Online
Can you tell me the good and bad points of your nearest competitor's website and why people would go there? Can you tell me why they would go back for a second or third visit? You can use what your competitors are doing to your advantage... that is if you know what they are doing!
Mistake #1 - Not going online at all!
Let's face it "Can you e-mail that to me?" is part of everyday business life. If you aren't online people will look at you like you're driving a 1974 Pinto and wearing polyester pants! You need your own domain name, e-mail, website, and all the other tools to drive your business into the 21st Century.
MORE MISTAKES Gratuitous Use of Edge Technology
Don't try to attract users to your site by bragging about use of the latest web technology. Using the latest and greatest is a sure way to discourage users: if their system crashes while visiting your site, you can bet that many of them will not be back. Unless you are in the business of selling Internet products or services, it is better to wait until some experience has been gained with respect to the appropriate ways of using new techniques. We use only proven, tested technologies!
3. Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animations
Never include page elements that move incessantly. Moving images have an overpowering effect on the human peripheral vision. A web page should not emulate Times Square in New York City in its constant attack on the human senses: give your user some peace and quiet to actually read the text! Of course, <BLINK> is simply NG
4. Complex URLs
A URL should contain human-readable directory and file names that reflect the nature of the information space. Also, users sometimes need to type in a URL, so try to minimize the risk of typos by using short names with all lower-case characters and no special characters (many people don't know how to type a ~).
5. Orphan Pages
Make sure that all pages include a clear indication of what web site they belong to since users may access pages directly without coming in through your home page. For the same reason, every page should have a link up to your home page as well as some indication of where they fit within the structure of your information space.
6. Lack of Navigation Support
Don't assume that users know as much about your site as you do. Start your design with a good understanding of the structure of the information space and communicate this structure explicitly to the user. Also, you will need a good search feature since even the best navigation support will never be enough.
7. Non-Standard Link Colors
Links to pages that have not been seen by the user are blue; links to previously seen pages are purple or red. Don't mess with these colors since the ability to understand what links have been followed is one of the few navigational aides that is standard in most web browsers. Consistency is key to teaching users what the link colors mean.
8. Outdated Information
Budget to hire a web gardener as part of your team. You need somebody to root out the weeds and replant the flowers as the website changes .maintenance is a cheap way of enhancing the content on your website since many old pages keep their relevance and should be linked into the new pages. Of course, some pages are better off being removed completely.
Why Web Sites Don't Sell
---Copy problems: awkward, confusing sentences; spelling,
grammar or punctuation errors.--Design problems: too many images, blinking fonts, too much text crammed on one page.--Organizational problems: users can't figure out how to get to the relevant information, or even worse, can't even figure out what the topic of the page is supposed to be.
remember who your audience is. "If this is a business web site, then treat it that way. You wouldn't print your resume on shocking pink paper using some goofy font, and you wouldn't show up to a job interview in acid green trousers and clown shoes. Is Your Site Easy To Scan?... Upon entering a web site, I found a body of text that was one long paragraph, what looked to me at the very least, 30 to 40 lines. After reading the first couple of lines, I felt a strange feeling in my eyes. My eyes were hurting! It's not that the colors clashed, or that the text was too small. I was just overwhelmed by the amount of text in one solid body. After I took a little break, I continued on, but I made sure that I didn't read it. Why? I couldn't! There was too much text and not enough white space. My senses were simply overloaded.
It's a well known fact that web design has many traits similar to those that are found in print press. Take a look at your local newspaper. All of their columns are written no more than 50 characters per line. All of the information is broken down to make reading the content easy. Effective use of white space. There are web sites out there that are beautiful in design, yet they always seem to forget about white space. When using tables, always set a cell padding on the table that contains text. By not doing this, your text will end up touching the borders.
- Write To Be Scanned. It's a well known fact that people who surf the Internet are in a rush. If your text can be scanned easily, you stand a better chance of getting your message across. By breaking up your text into small paragraphs that flow in a logical order, your page's content will be easier on the eye and won't overwhelm your visitor. Bullets are another great feature to help you accomplish this.
- Effective use of bolding and italics. There is a saying that I heard applies to this topic. "Less is more!" It's true, if every other word in a paragraph is bold then the use of the bold text loses it's effectiveness. Web designers use bold text to draw attention to something they feel is of importance. By using a minimal amount, your bold text will have a higher value.
- Short sentences. Whatever you are trying to say can be said in less words. Keep your sentences sweet and to the point. A good rule for this. Keep your sentences no more than 7 words, followed by a break. What is that break? Well, you could use a period, comma or anything else that allows the reader to breathe.
- Text size is of importance. The size of your text will also help contribute to the readability of your content. By having text that is too small, you are forcing those of us who use high resolution monitors to get within inches of the screen.
Headers! They are an important part of your text. By using headers, you can let a visitor know what the text below is about. Headers will allow a visitor to scan your page easily.
1) Why So Many Websites FailThe World Wide Web is booming. More and more people are logging on yet 95% of all ebusinesses fail. most of these failures can be linked to three major causes.
The Wrong Marketing Mindset - Marketing an online business is not as simple as hanging out a sign, placing an ad in the Sunday paper, taking a listing in the Yellow Pages, handing out a few flyers and then rely on word-of-mouth to carry the business forward.
Internet marketing must be directed toward a global consumer and the advertising must be designed to catch and hold the consumer's attention in a nanosecond as they are surf from site to site.
Instead of getting listed in the Yellow Pages, you must get listed in all of the major search engines. Instead of placing ads in the local newspapers, you need to place ads in ezines and on classified sites. Instead of neon signs and billboards, you need banner ads on as many sites as possible.
Dysfunctional Web Sites - I define dysfunctional sites as any site with a design flaw or chronic technical problem that renders it either difficult or impossible for the consumer to use.
For example: Last week I visited a site that sells marketing software. I liked what I saw and decided to purchase one of their products, but I could not find their order page. After several frustrating minutes, I left the site without buying.
A Lack Of Commitment - Many online entrepreneurs don't give their ventures enough time to succeed. They set up shop, toss out a couple of ads and if it doesn't start to roll right away, they discard it and move on to try the another venture.
A business, online or offline, takes time to grow. Sometimes, make that most of the time, you have to make adjustments in your original business plan. Don't be so quick to give up. Perseverance is the "secret" to many success stories.
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The Top 5 Search Engine Marketing MISTAKES:
Mistake #1: Buying into the Myth that SE Optimization No Longer Works. The NPD Group study demonstrated that search engine listings result in six times more sales on average than an equivalent number of visitors from banners adsMistake #2: Bulk Submitting is the Path to Riches. You've seen the advertisements such as "Submit to 3500 Web sites for just $79." The reality is that the majority of those sites you're submitting to are set up for the sole purpose of collecting e-mail addresses from people like you so they can send you junk mail. Even if you do land your site in some of the real search engines (there aren't that many), those bulk submission services generally do little to nothing to optimize your rankings.
Mistake #3: Meta Tags Will Solve All My Problems.... you've probably seen one of many tutorials on how to create the perfect meta tags so the search engines can find you. What they don't tell you is that the majority of the major search engines don't even read meta tags anymore. Certainly title tags and content quality are important, but don't make the mistake that this is all you need to do to be found on the Web today.
Mistake #4: Believing Doorways Don't Work or Will Get Me Banned .... The fact is that every page on your Web site that ranks well for any reason is acting as a "doorway" to your Web site. Many people mistakenly believe that everyone will arrive at their site through the home page. However, do a focused search on Google, AltaVista, or another major engine. You'll almost always find matches that are not home pages. Lastly, some of the same search engines that condemn the term doorway page include tutorials or FAQ's on how to create a page to rank well in their index. True, these tutorials are often too non-specific to be of great help. However, it confirms that optimizing each of your pages to rank better is not something the engines inherently object to.
Mistake #5: Submitting Before Establishing any External Links... There are many mistakes that can create these scenarios, but one that is easy to fall into is failing to achieve any links from other Web sites before submitting. Some engines such as HotBot are known to drop pages after a couple weeks if it finds no other domains linking to it. Google has also stated that it will not index a site that does not have at least one external link pointing to it.
Top 5 Search Engine Marketing TIPS: Tip #1: Target the Right Keywords For those of you new to search engine marketing, a "keyword" is simply a word or phrase that people would search on to find your Web site. You might think that choosing the right keywords to However, you'd be surprised at how many people jump in, optimize their Web site, and achieve top rankings. They then cry out in dismay when their hit counter registers no more visitors than it did before they went to all the work to tune up their site. What happened? They failed to choose keywords that people were actually looking for. Therefore, I recommend you:
A. Brainstorm a list of keywords and phrases that apply to your Web site's products and services. Try to place yourself in the shoes of the Web searcher. Avoid generalities like "small business." Yes, you may sell a product for small businesses, but who is going to search for "small business" when they are looking for a new Windows accounting program?
B. Take advantage of excellent services like WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/freetrial.htm) to tell you which keywords are popular, but still not so competitive as to make a top ranking next to impossible.
Tip #2: Proper Submission to the Major Directories is CriticalOne of the most significant changes in search engine marketing in recent years has been the rise in popularity of human reviewed directories and catalogs like LookSmart, Yahoo, and Open Directory. Some search engines prominently display directory listings for many popular searches. MSN is a prime example. Do a search on MSN and you'll generally find the first page of results dominated by LookSmart directory listings. Some of the other major engines also list directory results prominently, or at least emphasize them in various ways. You can recognize directory listings since they are often called "Web Site results" rather than "Web Page Results."
Many tips are found in my Looksmart Submission Guide at: http://www.webposition.com/mp-0900.htm#ONE
Bonus Tip 1: In general, you should try to include your keyword or phrase in the title tag, the heading tag, the link text, and to a lesser extent, your meta keyword and description tag.
Bonus Tip 2: Naming your page after your keyword and/or obtaining a domain name with your keyword in it will often boost your rankings.
Bonus Tip 3: If you run a regional business where most of your business is local, it's critical that you include your full company address on every page of your site., make sure the address is in text form since search engines can't read your address out of a graphical logo on your page.
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