Wednesday, May 20, 2009

6 Web Development Mistakes that Can Make you Lose Business

A great website that attracts and retains visitors can become a major marketing tool for your business. While a few businesses undertake web development and put up a website, a majority of them fail to take into account thousands of web users who can be potential customers for them and ignore the importance of having a website. Developing a great website is an arduous task and you should be aware of the following web development mistakes which can reduce the amount of significant business through your website:

Slow Loading Website
If you are targeting customers with your website, a slow load time is the last thing you need. Ask your web development service provider to make sure that your site loads within the ideal time of not more than 10 seconds. This can be done by ensuring that your site’s web page size is a maximum of 50 KB and not more. Typical visitors to your website will allow only a few seconds for your website to load and if it takes more than that, they will lose patience and move on. Hire a professional web development firm who will give you expert inputs regarding load time of your website and make sure that it doesn’t take too long to load even in average internet connection speed.

Confusing Navigation Web Development
Website navigation is important not only for visitors but also for search engines. Your web development service provider should plan a simple navigation path which is easy to decipher for visitors as well as search engines. If your website’s navigation is confusing, it will not only turn away prospective clients but also confuse the search engine crawlers. This will in the end affect your popularity and search engine rankings.

Discuss the navigation of the website in depth with your web development service provider so that it is clear and concise and visitors can find what they came for easily. Professionals in the web development field recommend having a three tier structure for your site. In such a structure, the Tier 1 page is your home page, Tier 2 pages are the internal link home pages and Tier 3 are the content pages of the respective Tier 2 pages. The Tier pages should always link back to the respective parent pages. E.g. Tier 2 pages should link back to the main homepage and tier 3 pages should link back to the respective Tier 2 pages. Such clear navigation guides both search engines and visitors to find the content they are looking for easily. A useful method of attracting visitors is placing an html sitemap for their reference. If you also have an xml sitemap, it will result in search engines caching your entire site faster.

Blocking Content
Tell your web development service provider not to block important and interesting content through registration pages. Forcing visitors to give information about themselves is not a way of gaining their trust. Instead, concentrate on creating new, unique content and interesting concepts and they will automatically convert into your customers.

Annoying Pop Ups
Visitors have today become very sensitive to the pop ups appearing on websites. They find it cheap and annoying and a majority of them instantly leave such websites because of the constant distraction. Don’t force your visitors to view what you want to show them through the annoying pop ups; instead, let them make a choice if they want to view sponsored ads. If your website has such pop ups, visitors will not only leave it but probably never visit it again.

Dead or Broken Links
In today’s day and age, web users are constantly bombarded with information from different medias including websites. In such a situation, there is nothing more frustrating for them to click on a link and find themselves on a dead end. If you have dead or broken links on your website, you will lose credibility in the eyes of the visitors. Instruct your web development service provider to keep a constant check for broken links and either remove them or provide a 301 redirect for them.

Complicated Checkout Process
If your business depends solely on your website like say, e commerce, a complicated checkout process is a big ‘no-no’. A professional web development service provider will develop a website for you which will have a simple procedure which guides customers step by step till the end. Only if you are able to make their shopping experience faster and smoother, will they keep coming back to buy from your site.

All of the above-mentioned steps are required to make visitors’ experience pleasant and interesting on your site. Be aware of these simple web development concepts and see your business grow through the online medium.


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