18 Most Common Mistakes When Designing Your Website (if you’re a do it yourselfer)

Shannan DuShane | January 2017 | Spectrum Net Designs, Inc

If you are anything like me I love to figure stuff out and do it myself. But there are some things you should leave to the professionals. No matter how much research you’ve done, you can replace experience. For instance, I can change a flat tire and my oil, but I would never re-build an engine or try and be a mechanic. Those are special trades that someone with hands on experience can provide you.

The same with website design, it is probably something you could figure out and manage, but why would you? Hire a professional who knows every aspect about building websites. It’s not just slap a logo on a html page with a phone number and hope for the best. These days, specifically as of 2017 business owners are almost required by your clients to have more to offer them via web.

We are human, and most of the time the issues are easily corrected. Here are 18 most common mistakes that business owners and do it yourselfers forget!

#18 Sitemap, Robot File, Analytics & Webmaster Tools. These valuable tools are completely essential if you want to rank on any search engine. There are tons of articles on how to start and develop your campaigns.

#17 Legalities. Make sure if you are using fonts, images, plugin, or other items that needs third party licensing you have a policy page in place for your protection. Sometimes required by law, privacy policies and disclaimers are a necessity.

#16. Proofread. Nothing says “unprofessional” more than grammar and spelling errors. Better to be safe than having a customer point out mistakes. If you can proofread your own site, what does that say about your work? I love using PaperRater to double check my writing. Also checkout 5 Free Online Proofreading Tools for Error Free Writing.

#15 Forms & Auto Responders. Test your forms and other features if you are going to put them on your site. The biggest error I see is that they are errored out or not setup properly and that is not how you want your customers to remember you. Keep them short and simple, don’t have 20 questions about every aspect, they will move on. Time is precious.

#14 404 Errors Page. Launching a new site means links will change. Are you ready? Setting up a 301 redirect will help customers to get to the correct page. Sometimes you can get away with a general 301 to your homepage, but the best route is to redirect to a similar page or item. You can use Google Tools or use the dead link checker too.

#13 Test Third Party Tools. When utilizing tools that you haven’t built can be good and bad. Double check all third party tools to ensure they are properly working, and doing what they are meant to do.

#12 Incorrect Information. Sorry we’ve moved! If anything, else make sure you NAP (name, address, phone number) are correct on your website or prepare for bad reviews and the start of your reputation management process.

#11 Broken Images & Links. These are a nuisance yes, but essential to check. Sometimes when you start with a demo site and go live, you remove the demo site and the files are gone too. Take time to check the entire website.

#10 Unorganized Ciaos. Create a plan of services and product hierarchy so that information is easy to find. Cluttered pages are a nightmare for a prospective clients trying you make heads and tails of your website

#9 Horrible Fonts. Now this might not seem bad now, but it isn’t easy to read or a messy font on a yellow background, your prospective customers won’t be sticking around. Look professional, do research on complimentary font combinations. You can use dafont.com and download some free ones.

#8 Say Goodbye to Heavy Content. 100’s of large images, 100’s of videos and such are a mistake if you don’t have them compressed and imbedded properly for streaming, it can blog your site and if customer have slow internet they will abandon within 30 seconds to a minute. Pingdom has a crazy cool tool to help you out. Check it out.

#7 Missing Search Feature. Implementing a search function is a great way for clients to find information. Rule of thumb is that a client gives approximately 30 seconds and then give up or move on.

#6 Navigation. This goes with the unorganized ciaos, be careful and don’t implement to many dropdowns, bad mix of colors, roll overs option, too many option will make the site undesirable and hard to navigate.

#5 Backend Structure. The structure has a lot to do with seo and search engine purposes. Having a solid back end can help with compression of your files and http requests that can slow down your website. Check your site here to see where you stand.

#4 Website Size. Size of your website depends on the trends for the year. All of them seems to be moving to bigger is better, so you will want to scrap your 600x600 resolution page that looks like an oil spot and get ready to go big.

#3 SEO Optimized. These days it is all about optimization. I could go on for pages about what you need to do, but mainly don’t forget about the little items such as your image optimization, your url permalinks that you can customize and your basic meta data. Most importantly setup your Title, Meta Description and permalinks, the rest can come with time and patience. Check out one of our articles here to start on your way.

#2 Browser Compatibility. Cross checking browsers ensures that your design and code can be viewed across the web. Compatibility problems are always there, and are different though the difference browser versions, ect. You can use BrowserShots if you need help. By visiting each of the major search engines you can see if they are working.

#1 Mobile Responsive/Mobile Friendly! So you want a website. Do you know where to start? Or where to end for that matter. The reality is having a website is an ongoing event. The ever-changing web always has something new up its sleeve. Having a website means that you will be flexible and follow the trends. Your customers are on the move and you need to be as well. Having a mobile responsive website is very important in today’s digital world.

Check your site to see what Google has to say. Click here.

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Using Local Resources for E-Commerce Not The Big Boxes

E-Commerce Resources At Your Fingertips

If you have been wondering whether the commotion over conducting your business online is something that you want to jump into, then read on. Online shopping is nothing new these days. Everyone has purchased something online at one time or another. This is much larger than it seems and it isn’t going anywhere, so it’s better to jump on the wagon than being left behind. We will explore the benefits and more to utilizing a local resource for your e-commerce needs and not going overseas or to a big box company like Go Daddy or Network Solutions.

Whether you are a consumer or a business-to-business resource, some of the most efficient marketing and selling tools are available via the Internet, and the potential of reaching a vast audience is open to you through the World Wide Web. Consider these facts: Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that 47.3 million North American households have online access and 43.9 percent have browsed online. Of the 43.9 percent, 65 percent have made purchases. By 2014, the research firm estimates that U.S. online retail sales will grow to $250 billion, up from $155 billion in 2009. (https://www.sba.gov)

Some shoppers still like that old fashioned in person service, but a positive aspect to e-commerce is that your customers will never have to wait to get your products, they can shop anytime and do it without wasting gas to get there and then standing in lines. This method is positively outdated and can be quite frustrating to customers. If you don’t stock all of your products at the store and customers drive around all day to find that one gift, that can be a huge turn off to your brand. Plus you have the ability to reach a larger audience and grow your business.

Not comes the aspect where you need to dive in and find a company to develop your online store, and believe me when I say there are 1000’s out there that are capable of building an e-commerce presence for you, but the kicker is can they do it properly and the way you want. The benefit of working with a local website developer is that you can be more hands on with the process and follow along more efficiently. You will need a developer that can understand your needs and have been in their industry for years. Experience here is crucial, if you hire an intern in college or an independent developer you won’t have the experience. If you hire a large big box third party company such as Go Daddy, you lack the personal touch and a lot of their product is drag and drop or plug in build where there is no customization involved. Your website will look like hundreds of other template sites. Your local website design firm and developers will know how to make you stand out and customize your customers experience with online shopping. Remember it’s not always about location, it is about availability and fast shipping options these days.

When you start with your chosen developer there are several questions you will need to answer. Some of those will be involved with:

1.       Shipping provider and shipping options

2.       Merchant account which is your payment gateway

3.       Type of payments accepted – Paypal, MC, VISA, Discover, ect.

4.       State by state sales tax and other fees associated with online shopping

5.       SSL Certificate which is essential and required for secure account information and credit cards

6.       Any specialty features you would like to incorporate such as search box, featured products, zoom, related products, newsletter sign up

And many more that will come up as you continue the path to completion.  The point is to do your research and know what you want before you jump in with a company. Make sure you have the communication you require. Know their process and how the process advances and a list of objectives and goals for the project. It is always nice to have a visible timeline laid out so that everyone knows their part and what to expect. Don’t be left out in the cold when your customers shop online, be on the forefront of their shopping lists and pair your e-commerce website with a killer marketing plan and you will have the whole package.