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 - No Keyword Research - Attempting to write a website without keyword research is effectively going blind. Good keyword research usually reveals many surprises and potential niche keywords that could be used to drive traffic. Poor use of keywords is the number 1 reason for website failure and it's totally avoidable through the use of keyword research tools - many of which are free to use.
2 - Lack of Competitor Research - without competitor research you won't know whether your page 1 competitors have 30 or 30,000 backlinks, and you won't know if their websites have 3 or 300 pages. The term 'mortgage' has 189 million pages listed in Google - moneysupermarket.com who are usually number 1 has 306,000 backlinks - hence it would be unrealistic for anyone other than a team of professional SEMs to compete. Simple research takes minutes and could save months of wasted effort and wasted cash.
3 - Nothing Special to Offer - doing exactly the same thing as your competitors is likely to make you blend into the abyss of failed or failing websites. Quality web design is all about being different - hence unless you spend some time planning to be better than your competitors then you are likely to fail. Think about better content, better visitor experience, easier navigation, special offers - anything that distances you away from the average - If you make the effort so will your visitor
4 - Poor Content Quality - if you have done your competitor research then you will know how much quality content you have to write to match your competitors. Both quality & quantity of text content is important - paragraphs should be no more than a few lines long, headings should contain your researched keywords. Planning this in advance will help improve your website ranking & conversion rates.
5 - Inadequate Page Planning - it's like the old saying: 'fail to prepare - prepare to fail' - inadequate page planning will inevitably result in lower rankings. Use well researched keywords in: titles, descriptions, headings, footers, menu text, link text, paragraphs, page names & directories. Keep your layouts consistent & your menus easy to follow. If you have the necessary skills prepare to write your website in scripting language such as ASP/PHP for greater control of layout & functionality & consider building in CMS so pages can be added or removed easily.
6 - No Plan for Marketing - if your aim is to write a website which will drive business through web traffic and you haven't considered how this traffic will magically appear then you haven't made a marketing plan. Depending how competitive your industry is - you may need to build 10s, 100s or 1000s of backlinks using web partners, directories & blogs. This may take hours/week/years hence you will need a plan with timescales.
7 - Hosting Overseas - planning to host your website overseas is also a big mistake as many search engines use 'Geo Targeting' in their ranking algorithms - worse still - your website will almost certainly load slower than if hosted with a reputable host in your home country. So savings here are not worth making. Always check your hosts IP address to insure the servers really are based where the host claims they are - yes there are hosts that tell big fat lies.
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 - Poor Choice of Fonts - choosing fonts that are tough to read makes it hard work for your visitors and even worse for anyone with visual impairment. Use basic fonts such as Arial & Helvetica wherever possible, else use fonts that are clear & match your website theme well.
10 - Poor use of Domain & Suffix - Wherever possible register a domain which incorporates your keywords, whilst this is not essential, every little helps. Many of us still make mistakes in registering the wrong suffix, whilst getting this a little bit wrong is neither here or there, however you might have trouble ranking a .pl (polish TLD) in the UK searches. Below are common UK TLDs
.com - commercial/ecommerce website (UK &/or International)
.co.uk - uk corporate website
.net - larger network website - typically used by web hosts
.biz - use for B2B business
.org.uk - organisation, group or charity
.info - informational site
.name - For identity purposes of an individual or organization
.ltd - for ltd company - 15615
(Please see: Top 60 Web Design Mistakes of 2009 for further information & resources)
1 - No Keyword Research - Attempting to write a website without keyword research is effectively going blind. Good keyword research usually reveals many surprises and potential niche keywords that could be used to drive traffic. Poor use of keywords is the number 1 reason for website failure and it's totally avoidable through the use of keyword research tools - many of which are free to use.
2 - Lack of Competitor Research - without competitor research you won't know whether your page 1 competitors have 30 or 30,000 backlinks, and you won't know if their websites have 3 or 300 pages. The term 'mortgage' has 189 million pages listed in Google - moneysupermarket.com who are usually number 1 has 306,000 backlinks - hence it would be unrealistic for anyone other than a team of professional SEMs to compete. Simple research takes minutes and could save months of wasted effort and wasted cash.
3 - Nothing Special to Offer - doing exactly the same thing as your competitors is likely to make you blend into the abyss of failed or failing websites. Quality web design is all about being different - hence unless you spend some time planning to be better than your competitors then you are likely to fail. Think about better content, better visitor experience, easier navigation, special offers - anything that distances you away from the average - If you make the effort so will your visitor
4 - Poor Content Quality - if you have done your competitor research then you will know how much quality content you have to write to match your competitors. Both quality & quantity of text content is important - paragraphs should be no more than a few lines long, headings should contain your researched keywords. Planning this in advance will help improve your website ranking & conversion rates.
5 - Inadequate Page Planning - it's like the old saying: 'fail to prepare - prepare to fail' - inadequate page planning will inevitably result in lower rankings. Use well researched keywords in: titles, descriptions, headings, footers, menu text, link text, paragraphs, page names & directories. Keep your layouts consistent & your menus easy to follow. If you have the necessary skills prepare to write your website in scripting language such as ASP/PHP for greater control of layout & functionality & consider building in CMS so pages can be added or removed easily.
6 - No Plan for Marketing - if your aim is to write a website which will drive business through web traffic and you haven't considered how this traffic will magically appear then you haven't made a marketing plan. Depending how competitive your industry is - you may need to build 10s, 100s or 1000s of backlinks using web partners, directories & blogs. This may take hours/week/years hence you will need a plan with timescales.
7 - Hosting Overseas - planning to host your website overseas is also a big mistake as many search engines use 'Geo Targeting' in their ranking algorithms - worse still - your website will almost certainly load slower than if hosted with a reputable host in your home country. So savings here are not worth making. Always check your hosts IP address to insure the servers really are based where the host claims they are - yes there are hosts that tell big fat lies.
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 - Poor Choice of Fonts - choosing fonts that are tough to read makes it hard work for your visitors and even worse for anyone with visual impairment. Use basic fonts such as Arial & Helvetica wherever possible, else use fonts that are clear & match your website theme well.
10 - Poor use of Domain & Suffix - Wherever possible register a domain which incorporates your keywords, whilst this is not essential, every little helps. Many of us still make mistakes in registering the wrong suffix, whilst getting this a little bit wrong is neither here or there, however you might have trouble ranking a .pl (polish TLD) in the UK searches. Below are common UK TLDs
.com - commercial/ecommerce website (UK &/or International)
.co.uk - uk corporate website
.net - larger network website - typically used by web hosts
.biz - use for B2B business
.org.uk - organisation, group or charity
.info - informational site
.name - For identity purposes of an individual or organization
.ltd - for ltd company - 15615
About the Author:
The author is an Ecommerce/Web Design Consultant with 12 years experience in the Web/IT Industries. He works with designers for many large PLC's such as: Vodafone, Coca Cola & Npower - see web design London for more information.
