17 Website Design Mistakes That Kill Your Sales - Part one
April 28, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
By Ben Hart
I have assembled here a checklist of 17 mistakes to avoid when designing your website if your primary goal is to make money with your website.
Mistake #1 - Opening your website with a Flash page
Opening a website with Flash (a mini-movie) can be very cool looking. Website designers and graphic artists love them because they are so pretty and showcase their technical skill. But Internet surfers can’t stand them because they are searching for information.
A Flash page (which often takes a long time to load) stands between the surfer and the key information she’s looking for — also between your reader and your sales pitch.
When people type keywords into a search engine, they are looking for information. No one types “only show me sites with Flash page introductions.” In fact, if a searcher gets to your site and is greeted with an elaborate Flash presentation, half your visitors will leave your site before they ever get to your sales presentation. Search engines also hate Flash pages. Search engines are interested in content and in delivering information to searchers.
A Flash page is a big stop sign to both your readers and to search engines.
Mistake #2 - Requiring readers to click a link rather than scroll to finish reading the information or sales presentation.
The award-winning websites want all information on a page to fit on your screen because it looks neater and tighter — more award winning. But it’s easier for readers to scroll than to click a link.
Scrolling allows readers to hold their finger on a button and scan your headlines and subheads. If something grabs their interest, they can read (without clicking). Clicking and waiting for another page to load takes time. It’s annoying to a reader. It’s a stopper — kind of like intermission at a long movie or play. If the movie isn’t much good, the Intermission is often when I leave, for good.
The average time a surfer spends on a Website is about six seconds. Don’t waste time by making your reader click and wait to read. Put the entire article, your entire presentation on one page, even if your reader must scroll and scroll and scroll to read everything on the page.
Mistake #3 - Too many graphics, not enough attention to copy
Copy sells. Pictures and graphics are supporting exhibits for the copy. The award-winning websites are all graphics-heavy — and beautiful to look at.
Copy sells because copy is needed to provide your readers reasons and compelling arguments for why your readers should buy and buy now. And copy allows you to start building a relationship with your reader, essential for having any chance of closing a sale. The Bible has no pictures, no photos — just lots of text. And it’s the bestselling book of all time.
People search the internet for information (text), not graphics or pretty layouts. No one types “beautiful site” as a modifier to keywords describing their topic of interest. Plus, search engines can’t read graphics and so can’t index graphics. And graphics take time to load.
What you want for you site is a nice, clean professional layout that’s almost all text.
Mistake #4 - Lack of focus
So often I get to a website and can’t quite figure out what the website is selling or what I’m being asked to do. Websites should be dedicated to selling one thing or one service, or asking your reader to take one and only one action (even if the only action is to read the article).
If you sell many different products and services, you should have many different Websites dedicated to each product and service you sell. The reason is, when people search the internet with their keywords, they are looking for one and only one thing. They will buy from the website that is selling that one and only one thing — because it appears to visitors that this is your area of specialty.
If you have a plumbing problem, you want a plumber to fix it — not a jack of all trades handyman. If you have cancer, you want to see a cancer specialist, not a general practitioner. So if you fix roofs and pave driveways, have two websites, one dedicated to fixing roofs, the other paving driveways. Narrow has always been the gate to paradise in direct marketing. This is even truer in the age of the Internet, where people are looking for your service or product with highly focused keyword searches.
Mistake #5 - “Welcome to My Home Page”
This is a little like starting your sales letter with “Welcome to My Letter” or the book you are writing to “Welcome to My Book.”
I see “Welcome to My Home Page” all over the Internet. I guess these people think this sounds warm and friendly — like “Welcome to My Home.” Don’t do this.
Your home page should feature your main sales presentation. It should launch right in with an attention-getting headline. It should look exactly like a sales letter you might get in your mailbox — except, instead of an order form and reply envelope, you’ll have links or buttons that say “Click Here to Order” that will take readers right to the credit card form.
When the average surfer spends 6 seconds on a Web page, you don’t want to waste time with pleasantries. Launch right it to the performance — the sales pitch.
Mistake #6 - No attention-getting headlines or subheads.
Web surfers are scanners. A headline is like hand that taps your scanner on the shoulder and says “look here.” Headlines and subheads tell your scanners what all this text is about. And it’s good for your headlines to say something unusual — if possible “human interest.” Here’s a pretty good one: “How My 10-Year-Old Daughter Earned $750 Last Week with Her New Online Business.” Free offers make good headlines, i.e.: “Here’s Your Free . . .”
Headlines are what suck your readers into your copy. If your headlines are fascinating, your readers won’t mind reading a lot of small print to get the details.
Mistake #7 - Boring Writing
You can’t sell by boring your reader. Your headline is designed to get your scanner reading. But if your first sentence is boring, your reader will go on to the next site. The easiest next step for a reader to take is always to stop reading and go onto something else that’s more interesting. Each sentence must be so interesting that your reader reads the next sentence. Stephen King is a master of this.
He writes 800 page books packed with tiny print. But the stories are so interesting that people cannot get enough. They can’t wait for his next book to come out. What makes for good writing is the story you tell and the facts and details you include. There are no boring subjects, just boring writers. The great salesmen are great storytellers. Everyone wants to listen because they always have interesting things to say. Interesting writing makes for great salesmanship.
Mistake #8 - Failing to build copy around the keywords and phrases your customers and prospects are typing into search engines.
The search engines want to make sure your website is in line with the keywords you’ve selected to include in your Meta Tags and with the keywords people are typing into search engines. What makes a search engine valuable is that it does a good job of taking searchers to websites that are exactly in line with their keyword searches. You want your site high on the list of search results listed for the keywords you’re using to bring people to your site.
