If you missed the first part of this post be sure to Read Part 1 which covers 1-5.
6. LEAD CAPTURE – DOESN’T EXIST, LACKS APPEAL, OR ASKS TOO MUCH
Think like a searcher. When you are browsing the net and come across an interesting offer, how much are you willing to do to get it. Personally if the form asks for my address, they don’t get my info at all.
It’s just too much work, plus I fear they are going to spam my email to death. They’re is usually no need to collect addresses from your market unless you plan on showing up for dinner one night. Email and name most often are all you need satisfy future marketing efforts. Read more about lead capture here
7. LURED BY FLASH – YOUR SITE LOOKS COOL BUT WHO IS GOING TO FIND YOU?
The only language guaranteed to be search engine friendly is HTML /CSS. Flash programming which typically is what moving objects are written in, is virtually invisible to search engines and will render your efforts to earn a top spot in search results, futile. If you must have moving graphics, keep them in the header of your site, sparing the other areas especially the navigation. Search engines crawl your site much like humans, but if they cant read your navigation – guess what? They can’t get to other areas of your site. You’ve basically blocked access for them and success for you.
8. FAILURE TO THINK LIKE A USER IN BUILDING/DEVELOPING NAVIGATIONAL ASPECTS OF WEBSITE.
These types of things are always better left to professionals. Sure you may think your site is easy to navigate because you know it well. Have a couple people who don’t know it well take it for a test drive. Things you think are obvious are not for fresh visitors, seeing your site for the first time.
You’ll be amazed by the feedback. Make sure this person is also not familiar with your business model.
It’s just like writing. We may proofread our own work thousands of times and are absolutely 100% certain there are no errors. Then we give it to someone else who sends it back to us showing several errors. I don’t know about you, but I am certain they added those errors to sabotage me, because those were not there before. Truth is, they were there, we just didn’t notice them because of our familiarity with what we wanted or meant to say, each time rehearsing it with the correct usage of words. This is an almost identical scenario. Think simple, and dumb it waaaaay down.
9. UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS ABOUT THE INTERNET
I will guarantee you that success will not find you on the internet. Despite many misconceptions that the internet is magic, it is in contrast, very deliberate. It provides access to a virtual roadway and that is it. We are responsible for navigating our destiny and thus our success. Doing nothing will continue to push your site and presence farther down until it’s “virtually” invisible. Without hard work and dedication on an ongoing basis, success will run away from you along with your market and search engines.
10. SKIPPING OVER SEO OR USING A DIY METHOD TO SAVE MONEY.
I have referred to SEO on many occassions as “the core of all marketing strategies” Similar to the foundation of a house, if your SEO is weak, the rest of your marketing strategies will suffer.
