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Your website can fail even before you start writing a single line of code - in fact 95% of websites will never achieve a page 1 or page 2 listing in search engines for their desired terms. Planning your website correctly is actually more important that writing it. Here are the top 10 planning mistakes to avoid:
(Please see: Top 60 Web Design Mistakes of 2009 for further information & resources)
1 - Poor Keyword Research - There are many tools available to web designers where keyword research is concerned - not using these is the single worst mistake a web designer can make. Other than confirming what you suspected, keyword research usually reveals many niche terms that visitors use when looking for your kind of business/service. The niche terms (long tail keywords) with less traffic may in fact be more desirable to you as visitors are usually much more specific just before they make a buying decision.
2 - No Competitor Research - Not checking out your competitors could prove costly in terms of wasted time/money - without competitor research you won't be able to tell weather your page 1 competitors have a few or thousands of backlinks, and you wont be able tell how many content rich pages their websites have. Competitive research will also help you determine any areas you could improve as far as page planning is concerned. Moneysupermarket.com who usually rank no1 for 'mortgage' and have over 300 thousand backlinks & thousands of pages would hence cost a fortune to outrank
3 - Nothing Special or Unique - Considering that only 1 out of 20 websites written will ever offer a good return on investment - offering something different to your competition is vital to your long term website success. These could include: a special offer for a limited period, better content, easier navigation - sometimes it's the little things like not forcing users to signup to view content that could tip the scales in your favour.
4 - Lack of Good Content - fail on this point & it doesn't matter what else you have got right - many visitors use search engines to resolve a problem: this could be: find a product, find a supplier, find a service provider etc - hence answer your visitors immediate question & provide plenty of supporting content. The more thoughtful you are with your content the more likely your visitors will turn into business
5 - Lack of Page Planning - failing to plan each of your pages correctly will cause you a problem with 'on page factors' - these affect your position in search engines. The following should contain your researched keywords: page names, directory names, titles, descriptions, headings, footers, menu text, link text & paragraphs. Your menus should be simple/ text selectable & your primary keyworded heading should be displayed high on page. Your contact details should always be found easily.
6 - No Plan for Marketing - most of us by now know that the myth of 'write a website & the visitors will come' is not true. The objective for most websites should be to aim for Page1 or Page2 of search engines. By doing your competitor research you will know how big a hill you have to climb un order to match/beat the competition. Being unrealistic with the time/budget for this task will make even the best website fail.
7 - Cheap Hosting Overseas - unless your site is geared more to international traffic rather than local or national then hosting overseas is a bad idea. Cheap overseas hosting will lead to longer load times & will affect your ranking in search engines. Plan to host your website in your home country - use a fast well recommended hosting service with 24/7 support - be sure to check the hosts IP address to insure the servers really are based where the host claims they are. Many search engines today use Geo Targeting in some manner.
8 - Poor use of Colours - you have approximately 3 seconds to make your first impression hence insure your colour scheme is perfect for your website & is unlikely to offend your visitors. Avoid luminous colour schemes & take care when designing websites geared for other countries as certain colours have major cultural significance. Avoid using any more than 3 colours in your scheme & insure these are web safe & matched well. Poor planning in this area is likely to make your website look amateur.
9 - Strange Fonts - consider that not all of us have perfect vision hence try not to make your visitors strain to read your content - use basic fonts such as Helvetica or Arial. Poor use of fonts is a certain way of your website becoming a victim of the back button. There are nor laws in place in a few countries that govern the use of text within websites - I haven't heard of anyone being sued yet, but I'm sure someone will tell me otherwise.
10 - Website Name & Suffix - choose a domain that contains your keywords & select the correct domain suffix (top level domain) - whilst using your keywords in your domain is not essential, it helps with towards your page ranking. Choosing the wrong suffix will not help you achieve listings in the right territory. Common UK TLD's:
.com - commercial/ecommerce website (UK &/or International)
.co.uk - uk corporate website
.net - often used by web hosts - large network
.biz - use for B2B business
.org.uk - group, charity or organisation
.info - informational site
.name - For identity purposes of an individual or organization
.ltd.uk - UK ltd company
(Please see: Top 60 Web Design Mistakes of 2009 for further information & resources)
1 - Poor Keyword Research - There are many tools available to web designers where keyword research is concerned - not using these is the single worst mistake a web designer can make. Other than confirming what you suspected, keyword research usually reveals many niche terms that visitors use when looking for your kind of business/service. The niche terms (long tail keywords) with less traffic may in fact be more desirable to you as visitors are usually much more specific just before they make a buying decision.
2 - No Competitor Research - Not checking out your competitors could prove costly in terms of wasted time/money - without competitor research you won't be able to tell weather your page 1 competitors have a few or thousands of backlinks, and you wont be able tell how many content rich pages their websites have. Competitive research will also help you determine any areas you could improve as far as page planning is concerned. Moneysupermarket.com who usually rank no1 for 'mortgage' and have over 300 thousand backlinks & thousands of pages would hence cost a fortune to outrank
3 - Nothing Special or Unique - Considering that only 1 out of 20 websites written will ever offer a good return on investment - offering something different to your competition is vital to your long term website success. These could include: a special offer for a limited period, better content, easier navigation - sometimes it's the little things like not forcing users to signup to view content that could tip the scales in your favour.
4 - Lack of Good Content - fail on this point & it doesn't matter what else you have got right - many visitors use search engines to resolve a problem: this could be: find a product, find a supplier, find a service provider etc - hence answer your visitors immediate question & provide plenty of supporting content. The more thoughtful you are with your content the more likely your visitors will turn into business
5 - Lack of Page Planning - failing to plan each of your pages correctly will cause you a problem with 'on page factors' - these affect your position in search engines. The following should contain your researched keywords: page names, directory names, titles, descriptions, headings, footers, menu text, link text & paragraphs. Your menus should be simple/ text selectable & your primary keyworded heading should be displayed high on page. Your contact details should always be found easily.
6 - No Plan for Marketing - most of us by now know that the myth of 'write a website & the visitors will come' is not true. The objective for most websites should be to aim for Page1 or Page2 of search engines. By doing your competitor research you will know how big a hill you have to climb un order to match/beat the competition. Being unrealistic with the time/budget for this task will make even the best website fail.
7 - Cheap Hosting Overseas - unless your site is geared more to international traffic rather than local or national then hosting overseas is a bad idea. Cheap overseas hosting will lead to longer load times & will affect your ranking in search engines. Plan to host your website in your home country - use a fast well recommended hosting service with 24/7 support - be sure to check the hosts IP address to insure the servers really are based where the host claims they are. Many search engines today use Geo Targeting in some manner.
8 - Poor use of Colours - you have approximately 3 seconds to make your first impression hence insure your colour scheme is perfect for your website & is unlikely to offend your visitors. Avoid luminous colour schemes & take care when designing websites geared for other countries as certain colours have major cultural significance. Avoid using any more than 3 colours in your scheme & insure these are web safe & matched well. Poor planning in this area is likely to make your website look amateur.
9 - Strange Fonts - consider that not all of us have perfect vision hence try not to make your visitors strain to read your content - use basic fonts such as Helvetica or Arial. Poor use of fonts is a certain way of your website becoming a victim of the back button. There are nor laws in place in a few countries that govern the use of text within websites - I haven't heard of anyone being sued yet, but I'm sure someone will tell me otherwise.
10 - Website Name & Suffix - choose a domain that contains your keywords & select the correct domain suffix (top level domain) - whilst using your keywords in your domain is not essential, it helps with towards your page ranking. Choosing the wrong suffix will not help you achieve listings in the right territory. Common UK TLD's:
.com - commercial/ecommerce website (UK &/or International)
.co.uk - uk corporate website
.net - often used by web hosts - large network
.biz - use for B2B business
.org.uk - group, charity or organisation
.info - informational site
.name - For identity purposes of an individual or organization
.ltd.uk - UK ltd company
About the Author:
The author is a professional Ecommerce/Web Design Consultant who has 12 years experience in the IT Industry/Web Industries. He works with designers for many large corporations such as Npower, Vodafone & Coca Cola - see web design Birmingham for more information.
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