Web Site Design Resource Center
Top 5: Why Your Web Site Will Fail
Here at Cavendo, we hate to see web sites fail. Unfortunately, it happens. In fact, it happens all too often. Even the most beautiful, gripping, and eye-catching web sites fail. In all our experience in web design and development, we’ve compiled our “Top 5” list for why your web site, too, will fail.
5. You Have No Goals or Plans
When setting up a new web site, most people just jump head first into the murky waters that are the Internet. They see that everyone has a web site and they should too. It doesn’t matter how it happens as long as it happens.
The problem with this “build first, ask questions later” approach is that you’re setting yourself up for failure right from the beginning.
Just like any good business, you must have a plan. Most important, you must have goals. Now, we’re not talking about a 50-page success plan for your web site – just a 1-page document that outlines what you want to accomplish.
What should this document or plan contain? Identify the purpose of the web site and what you want to do with it. Will it be a marketing tool to provide information to prospects? Or, will it be a sales tool in which you generate new leads? Also, who are your target audiences? These are just some of the questions that should be running through your head as you plan your new web site.
When it comes to goals, you must determine where you want your site to be in three months, six months, 12 months, and perhaps even longer. Establish specific goals that will enable you to attain the success you envision for your web site. Do you want to get 100 new visitors per month for the next six months? Do you want to generate three solid leads per month from your web site? Get your goals in order and make sure that they’re not only attainable, but measureable as well.
4. Your Web Site is Hard to Use
Nothing kills a web site faster than poor usability. Usability has to do with the way your web site is created to interact with visitors. It includes everything from your global navigation bar to the way you label the terms used on your web site.
Usability is important because people have a very short attention span when it comes to the Internet. If they can’t find what they’re looking for within seconds, they’re gone.
Usability is also hard to nail down. How do you know if your web site is hard to use?
Beyond some of the major no-no’s of the Internet – such as frames, mystery meat navigation, and boring Flash intro pages – there exists no one answer to help you improve usability. You have to test users and see where they’re experiencing snags with your web site. This can be accomplished simply by getting a couple of friends, family members, or even clients to sit down and use your web site. As they navigate your web site, you should be there to watch them and hear what they’re thinking.
3. Your Web Site is Just a Brochure
Brochures are boring. They’re everywhere and they usually focus just on what the organization is, what it can do, how you can contact them, and so on.
Chances are your web site is a brochure. Does it talk endlessly about how feature-packed your products or services are? If the focus of your web site is on what your organization does, then it’s just a brochure.
Instead of focusing on how good your organization is, focus on your target audiences.
Your target audiences should have been identified in your web site planning. These are the people you’re trying to reach and “sell” something to. By sell, we mean buying a product, signing up for a newsletter, making a donation, and so forth.
You can focus on your audience by creating content that helps them solve problems. People like a good resource that isn’t bent on trying to sell them something. They want to know more about specific issues that pertain to their specific problems. Not to toot our own horn, but this is exactly what we’re trying to accomplish with our Resource Center.
Keeping some of the brochure elements of your web site is fine. People are also information seekers and they will want to know your organization’s capabilities. However, make sure you balance that out with a healthy dose of resource content. Remember, people trust organizations that are established as the thought leaders in their industries – and for a good reason.
2. Nobody Can Find Your Web Site
This seems pretty obvious. Unfortunately, too many people adhere to the philosophy that if you build it, they will come. Where that might be true with a new Wal-Mart store or Starbucks cafe, it simply isn’t the case with your web site.
Getting people to your web site is a tough thing. It requires constant attention. You must integrate it closely with your current marketing and sales efforts.
That means putting your web site address on all your business cards, letterhead, email signatures, newsletters, and other marketing materials. It also means you must be active in telling people where they can find you on the web. Be proud of your web site and let others know that they’re missing out if they don’t visit it.
Another important avenue in which people find your web site is through search engines. Your web site must be search engine friendly using Search Engine Optimization – or SEO as it’s often referred to. Read our “Top 5” list on things you should be doing to optimize your web site for search engines.
1. Your Web Site is Stale
This is by far the number one reason why many web sites fail. Visitors are turned off by web sites that lack any fresh content.
What commonly happens is that the web site is created and promptly forgotten about. The reason behind this is that people think they need a web site, so they quickly put one together and then throw it out for the world to see.
This is a bad approach and a waste of time for everyone.
Creating and launching a web site requires commitment if you want it to do anything for your organization. You must keep it finely tuned with new content. Visitors are content hungry creatures. With so many other web sites out there, they crave something that’s fresh. Anything that’s stale leaves a bitter taste.
Fresh content has another added benefit. It keeps people coming back to your web site. If your visitors know that your site will be updated with new and useful information, they’ll be interested to know what that newest piece of content is.
Yet another benefit of fresh content has to do with search engine optimization. Like content hungry visitors, search engines love web sites that are constantly updated. It tells the search engine that this web site is useful and alive, and as a result, should be indexed with a little more priority than those bitter old stale web sites.
We recommend checking out our 3-part blog series on keeping your site fresh. Part One explains the importance of not being stale; Part Two gives you some things to do to stay fresh; and Part Three offers methods for staying persistent and consistent.