Top 10 Deadly Website Sins

[minstrel]

This could have been posted in Site Design, but I thought it had enough relevance for questions asked about search engines and site promotion that I'd post it here.

Top 10 Deadly Website Sins

1. Not updating the content on the website. Where would you rather be for a long period of time, a library full of books or a room with several mediocre paintings? If you had to return, where would you rather go? Content can be photos, articles, news clips or narrative.
2. Thinking that just because you have a website, business will come flowing. Bringing visitors to your website takes a consistent effort and time.
3. Not marketing your site. Make sure that you put your www address on every bit of paper you ever send to clients. Include it in your email signature, have it visible in your premises, and tell people about it. Add your site to search engines and web directories. Now you've got it – flaunt it!
4. Not having website statistics. You need to be able to see which is your most popular page, how many people are looking, if what you thought is your best product is your most popular, etc. It is this intelligence that will allow you to make your site tightly targeted to your specific potential customers needs and wants.
5. Hiding your content behind fancy graphics. Pictures and graphics are a great way to make a site look interesting, but if you do have textual content, make sure it is easy to read, spell checked, understandable and current.
6. Having a slow site. Pages should take no more than 10 seconds to appear fully. Any more than that and the boredom factor starts to set in. If you do have something that you know will take a while to appear, tell the viewer, and give them something to read while it is happening, it will make the wait less obvious.
7. Not having a picture of yourself on your website. In the day of virtual communication, it is often nice to see whom you are dealing with. It does not have to be a grand scale portrait, just a tasteful shot so people can actually see you, and start to build some trust.
8. Rely too heavily on techno wizardry. Some people are still looking at websites on basic computers and some people don't like to spend time waiting for things to appear. This means that if your site needs the best equipment to run and a long time to wait, you may be missing out on potential customers.
9. Having crowded pages. It takes approximately 20% longer to read something on a computer screen than it does on paper. Make sure your pages are not cluttered so people can read things comfortably, and do not jam pack the page so viewers have to search around to know what to look at first.
10. Having broken links! This means that you have a link to another page, but it is not there and comes up with an error message. This can defeat all the work you have put into having a great site, as it can look unprofessional. Keep an eye on this if you have a page of external links.

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Credits: Originally submitted by Guy Levine, The Technology Coach, at thetechnologycoachingco.com. Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002 by Thomas J. Leonard. May be distributed if full attribution is given and copyright notice is included.

http://topten.org/public/AM/AM62.html

[sudhani]

Thanx minstrel!!!

But i would like to add another sin here .... May be it should be the 0th sin.

0. Not knowing the purpose of having a website. Many people just create a website just for the sake of it. They really don't have a clue on how the website is going to help them. The web presence / web marketing(sales) should be an integral part of the company's "marketing strategy". Not a part if "IT Strategy".

[le_gber]

I would add one between the 0 and the 1 let's call it 0.5

0.5 Setting goals for your website: wether it is getting listed in google after 3 months or receiving 20 enquiries per month you need to set goals to see if your website is improving or declining.

Leo

[johnm]

OK, 0.75
Don't forget about navigation. I've seen some sites that would need psychic help to get around. Easily traveled pages and ways to get back are a must.

[sudhani]

Think we should invite 'wen' to add the next 90 points to make the list "100 Deadly sins"

[rlrouse]

Spending more time on getting new customers than we do in keeping the ones we have.

[greeneagle]

Approximately 50% of viewers are Left Brained and the half are Right Brain Inclined!

A Clashing Color Scheme is no venial sin.

Ken

[sudhani]

Approximately 50% of viewers are Left Brained and the half are Right Brain Inclined!

A Clashing Color Scheme is no venial sin.

Ken

Ken >> you are just true about colors >>> colors are the ones that keep the user on our site

If half the people are Right Brain Inclined >>> the world would be more and more beautiful. I doubt if that figure exceeds 1%.

btw, what colors do you think will impress the left brained and what colors attract the right brained

[timgesner]

Here's a sin nobody has mentioned yet:

Have a boss that knows nothing about webdesign and refuses to learn (or listen), but insists upon telling you how to make the page.

Get a boss like that and you may just end up with some pretty crappy pages. I learned this one the hard way!

I'd encourage you to look at the results, but, frankly, my Dark Lord overseer would like the hits and we can't have that now, can we? :-) Besides, I think the moderators here might think I was attacking the person and not the practice of assuming that everything that pops out of someone's mouth is garbage, unless they are an executive, of course.

[salubritas]

The article can be found here http://topten.org/public/AM/AM62.html

It looks like you have given sufficient credit to me.

- edit -

Oops! Just re-read what I wrote! I am not the source of this article - what I meant was "it looks to me like you have given sufficient credit". I'm not trying to claim it as my own...