The 4 Biggest Business Website Mistakes
May 23, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray
May 23, 2011
In my column for The New York Times, I critique websites submitted by readers and it amazes me how many smart businesspeople fail to treat their websites the way they treat their brick-and-mortar businesses.
While every site has its unique issues, four themes keep coming up:
1. Poor messaging/failure to differentiate
The most popular button on any website is the back button. There are millions of websites, and you need to give visitors a great reason to come to yours and stay there. Before you embark on any website project, get a clear understanding of your value proposition.
One of my favorite sites is Zappos.com, which sells shoes exclusively online. What differentiates Zappos is exceptional customer service. They offer free shipping in both directions, a no-questions-asked return policy and 24/7 customer service. All these offers are made prominently on their homepage. Clear messaging combined with great graphics, clear navigation and a clean user interface is one of the reasons their sales are over $1 billion a year.
2. Failure to monitor
Imagine if hundreds of people walked in the door of your brick-and-mortar store, looked around for a few seconds and then took off without even walking down a single aisle. If that happened, you’d immediately make changes. The one thing you wouldn’t do, is nothing.
An astoundingly high percentage of businesses with websites fail to install analytics. Google has a powerful analytics tool that is free and easy to install. Analytics tell you:
Bounce rates: This is the percentage of people coming to your site and leaving without clicking to another page. A high bounce rate tells you something is wrong with your messaging or user interface.
Pageviews: This gives you an idea of how many times your pages are viewed per visitor.
Most-visited pages: This is an excellent way to learn what customers are really interested in.
Traffic sources: This can provide feedback on advertising efforts and information about your competition.
Time spent on the site: This shows how engaged your visitors are.
Conversion rates: How many visitors take the steps to do business with you?
Make sure that someone at your company regularly keeps track of your analytics. If you use a marketing company to follow the analytics, make sure they are providing you with regular, detailed reports. A good marketing company will not only report raw numbers, but also provide you with ways to improve those numbers, such as better landing pages. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
