Your Website Can Make Your Business Look Amateur

Although your mom and pop business may have been around for the last couple of decades, your website might make your business look like a fly-by-night amateur to the global Internet community. When designing your website, here are some things to avoid:

• Dark, heavy backgrounds with hard-to-read fonts - For a business website, it’s best to use a plain white background and black text so that your visitors can read it easily. Some first timers are tempted to have “fancy” backgrounds with different colored text. Not only is this hard to read, but if you have a product line, it is difficult to make pictures of your product line blend in with the background.
• Pages that are larger than the browser screen - There’s nothing more irritating that trying to read a web page that scrolls across the screen. The majority of web users use 1024 x 768 as their desktop resolution. Try to stay within those confines.
• Sound effects - Everyone has different tastes when it comes to music, but even if you discovered music that appeals to every single person alive, don’t make it automatically load on your site. If you have a music site, you can create a jukebox that allows the user to click play if he or she wants to hear it. The same goes with audio advertisements or other background sound effects — have a pause or “off” button.
• “Cool” effects - About 8 or 9 years ago, it was real “cool” to have a flash presentation on the index page. Everyone was doing this. This does nothing to establish your online reputation. Flash introductions take forever to create and many of them are just downright stupid. These introductions take a long time to load and most people will not view them. Another thing that beginners think is “cool” are page fading effects, animated images and scrolling text. When I first started designing pages, I added these things, thinking it made me look like I was adept with web design. However, the cold reality is that these effects are a waste of time and a turnoff. I’ve seen some sites, designed by supposed design specialists, where the links scroll by really fast and you have to “aim and shoot” just to be able to click a link. Don’t bother adding these effects. People are visiting your site for information or products, not a bunch of movement that’ll give them a headache.
• No clear navigation scheme - Many people enter a website by the interior pages, not at the home page. You need to give them a way to easily navigate through your site. Left and top menus are the most popular and are therefore familiar to your visitors. Regardless of where you place your menu, make sure it’s consistent throughout your entire site. A lack of a clearly defined and consistent navigation menu is a sure fire sign of an amateur web design.
• No search feature - Particularly if you have a large product line that you are selling or if you have a content rich site, always include a search box to help your visitors. If you don’t know how to do this, try Google’s free search box or FreeFind. This makes your site “user friendly” and shows that you care about your visitor’s experience on your site.
• “Secret” prices - If you’re selling products, include the price. Don’t try to force your visitor to go through the shopping cart process to find out what the cost will be — many of them won’t do it, anyway.
• Policies - An amateur site will not include privacy policies, terms of use and, when selling products or services, returns and shipping policies. These are critical and as a matter of fact, attorney Shawn Casey says that by not providing a policy statement, you run the risk of being shut down by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). In this vein, you should also provide contact information, particularly if you are selling products or services.
• Under construction pages - “Under construction” or “coming soon” pages are a surefire way to announce that you’re an amateur. If you haven’t finished a page yet, don’t bother linking to it. Add a link to your menu and sitemap once the page is completed and uploaded.
• No online shopping cart - If you are selling a product, provide a way for people to purchase your product online. When people are looking to buy something online, they want to be able to buy it immediately. Chances are, they don’t want to mail a check or money order. If you don’t have a merchant account, consider Paypal or, in the case of digital products, consider using a service such as Clickbank. If you have a merchant account and are struggling with setting up a shopping cart, try Mals-e.com, which provides a free and secure shopping cart service.

The above are just a few points to consider if you want a professional business site and not one that looks like it was crafted by a beginner. As a mom and pop business owner, your website might be the first way that someone discovers your business. First impressions count — Generally speaking, a visitor to your site will form an opinion within the first 20 seconds. That’s why it’s important to have a clean, easy-to-navigate and informative site straight away. Don’t waste your time or your potential customer’s time with javascript, dhtml, flash or other gimmicks.

To create a stunning web site that complies with all of the “professional web design basics” and will also enhance your chances of being listed in the search engines, I highly recommend that you use xSite Pro. Among its many user-friendly features is a search function, automatically updating menu (so when you add pages, your menu updates without your having to manually add a page and link), and “advisor” that will tell you if your page will take too long to load, will let you know if there is too little or too much text, and more.

There are free web authoring programs available or you could try Dreamweaver or other commercial programs. Quick frankly, compared with xSitePro, all of these will waste your time and money. xSitePro will have you create a professional site the first time around. Time is money. Check it out.

You’ve spent time creating a good business. Don’t screw it up with a terrible website.

Related ...

• January 5, 2009 -- Building Your First Website: Day 1 (0)
• December 30, 2008 -- Over 30,000 Sites Created with Drag and Drop Simplicity (for Free). (5)
• December 28, 2008 -- Are You Using Jeff Johnson’s SEO Blog Software? Here’s How to Update It to the Latest Wordpress Version. (0)
• December 18, 2008 -- Did Adding the Alexa Widget Increase Traffic Rank? (8)
• December 17, 2008 -- Grab a Banner Generator and Quality Graphics for Free (2)
• December 14, 2008 -- How to Add a Personal Gravatar and Some Fun Stuff (8)
• December 12, 2008 -- A Quick Way to Check on Whether Blog Comments are ‘DoFollow’ or ‘NoFollow’ (4)