As a Marketing Agency, all too often we’ve seen the design aesthetics of a website take priority over its powerful potential to generate sales. The #1 goal of any successful website should be to create traffic, leads and ultimately, customers.  People aren’t going to buy from or hire your company because your site is “pretty”; they are going base their decision on the actual content.  Of course the design should be aesthetically pleasing and good from a usability standpoint, but it shouldn’t be too elaborate or complex that it takes away from the purpose of the site itself.

If you’re about to take the plunge into redesigning your website, be sure your website designer isn’t making these costly mistakes:

1. Your site is being developed in Flash.  Yes, a site developed in Flash may look cutting-edge with cool animations, but guess what? Your site will most likely NOT be found in Google and other search engines because it is very difficult for search engines to crawl and index pages of Flash website.  In other words, no one will find you!

 2. You’re not able to make any changes to the site yourself.  And in fact, for every little sentence tweaked, button or new content added, you have to contact the developer/designer to request the change or addition. 

Just think of how much cash you’re losing out on when you’re waiting around for new changes to be made.  At the very least, you should be able to add a few Calls-To-Action (CTA) on your website with forms for customer information so that you don’t miss out on potential leads. Any good website designer or agency these days will build you a website that allows YOU to make simple changes like this yourself. 

 3. The aesthetics of your website leaves no room for Calls-To-Action (CTA).  Your designer will most likely be focused on the aesthetic details of the website instead of getting people to do what you want them to do on your website (i.e. convert into a lead or buy something).  During times like this, it’s important to remember that the main goal of your website is to generate leads.  And without any good CTAs or compelling offers on your homepage or interior pages, you’re going to be left with just a “pretty” website that isn’t offering a positive Return-On-Investment (ROI).

 4. You’re Meta Tags are not being used properly.  First, let me explain what Meta tags are for those of you who aren’t “up” on programming language :-)  A Meta tag is a line of HTML coding that contains metadata about a webpage. In a way, Meta tags tell the search engine what the page is about.

One big mistake website designers make is not taking advantage of or using these Meta tags improperly. Sometimes these Meta tags will be replaced by unnecessary images or won’t even be filled out at all. Again, keep in mind that the purpose of your website is to attract people to your business’ site and generate leads.  If the search engines can’t tell what your page is about, the search engines most likely won’t rank your pages high in the search results…..which means people will have a hard time finding you.

 5. Your site has no marketing funnels.  What is a marketing funnel, you ask?  Imagine an actual funnel with the wide end at the top and the narrow end at the bottom.  You want to get as many people as possible into your funnel and guide them through to the very bottom.  A good site should have 3-4 funnels, directing users where you want them to go.  Without funnels, the user is left to aimlessly click around to try and find what they are looking for.  Research shows that visitors spend an average of just eight seconds before deciding whether or not to remain on a website, so having a good funnel is crucial for turning visitors into leads.

 Hopefully your website designer isn’t falling short in the areas mentioned above.  But, if he or she isn’t making the grade, please contact us for a complimentary, no-obligation website evaluation.