WARNING: Make sure you avoid the mistakes below. In fact, pay close attention to these before you EVEN THINK of getting a new website or redesigning your current website.

 

1. Not knowing who your domain name is registered to.

   I have had to re-write this report and make this no.1. You have no idea how many people fall for this one at a time when everyone is so well versed with the Internet and all new technologies. UNDERSTAND that your (incorporated) business name is registered to you but the domain name is not automatically registered to you even if it’s exactly the same name or word.

   DO NOT ASSUME THAT YOUR DOMAIN IS IN YOUR NAME SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS THE NAME OF YOUR BUSINESS. MAKE SURE YOUR DOMAIN NAME IS REGISTERED TO YOU AND NOT YOUR WEBSITE DESIGNER OR ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER.

   Some unscrupulous designers out there do this so they can literally hold you to ransom should you wish to switch providers. BE WARNED.

2. Not knowing who owns the files and all other graphics that go into your website design. They must be copyrighted to you. At the very least you must have access to your files at all times. I have seen people stop their website hosting with certain companies and fail to retrieve their files. In most cases this means re-doing all the design work over again and usually this is very expensive and time consuming. www.Jaxinternet.co.uk always give you back-ups and total control over your material.
3. Lack of focus on your customers’ perspective. This can also be described as making sure your SEO matches your SEM. It’s all well and good to be search engine friendly and achieve no. 1 for your keywords but after you reach no. 1 you still need to sell to your customers. Your customers are the ones that pay you not Google, so make sure you talk to them in their language and sell to them. Do not write your sales copy based on what your directors want but on what your customers want.
4. Pages that take ages to load. Your prospects are busy and do not have all day to wait for your fancy graphics and other unusual items to load. Make sure your website provides the information required quickly without too much fanfare or other delays. Google, Twitter, eBay and Amazon are very successful websites because they provide the information you require exactly as you require it. You are met with a search box on Google and in a few seconds you get your search results –simple and very effective. Apply the same principles to your own website.
5. Too much flash (or flash only) on your website. Please do not put too much in your flash intros or other such pages and subject your prospects or visitors to the pain of waiting ages to get the info they REALLY require. Flash gives the search engines a hard time and can cost you that no.1 search position simply because search engines cannot index the flash part. Use flash moderately or avoid it altogether if you can.
6. Not capturing your visitors’ details. You have worked so hard to get traffic to your website and they have visited. The thing is not everyone is ready to buy today so capture their names and email addresses and keep them informed of your new specials, products etc so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Also use stats programs that track your visitors and show you who is visiting and help you with better targeting for your campaigns. You already do this in your brick and mortar business so why not do it online?
7. Poor use of colours. Please make sure your colours do not clash and scare off potential customers. Make sure your website is eye-friendly so at least your visitors can read what’s in your pages or sales copy.
8. Non-standard navigation or bad linking system. Make sure your website navigation is easy to understand and if something is not on the homepage make sure visitors can easily find it. Try to keep everything less than 3 clicks away from your homepage.
9. WebPages that are never updated. Always keep your websites fresh and interesting. Use an easy to use CMS and keep your visitors coming back because they know there is something else to see on your website. I recommend only using website designers that will arrange for an easy-to-use CMS so you can change and update your website yourself at anytime saving you time and money. I know you may be busy but you need this control on your website and it is not necessarily an everyday thing anyway. Most CMS systems are so easy to use that if you can write an email or use Microsoft Word, you can easily operate these.
10. Lack of traffic. It surprises me how, in this day and age, very sound businesspeople still believe in the old “once you build it they will come” myth. Unfortunately this does not work anymore. You need to attract visitors to your website. It’s a full time job for some people. There are a lot of methods you can use for this and it is very important that you get traffic. Without traffic you do not get visitors and without visitors you do not get sales. Without sales … well… you get the picture. You can use search engines, articles, email marketing, offline methods and lots more to get traffic to your website. Contact us for more details on this.

If you feel the above has been helpful please drop me an email to my email address so I know that my efforts have helped someone out there. OR if you would like a quick website health check fill out our online form here so one of our experts can have a quick look to see what you are doing right.

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Did I tell you how Mr X from part 4 picked me for his website design project in the first place? Listen up because he actually had a good way to do this;

Here it is:

First of all you must be absolutely clear about why you want a website and what exactly you want to achieve with it. This way you will be able to get what you want without being swayed or manipulated by a smart-talking salesman with a cheesy tie!

After you have really figured out what you want then you can set about looking for it and picking website designer to do this with.

Ask for a few quotes or tenders (not more than 5 but 3 is ideal) from a few developers or website designers.

Take a very good look and study each entry carefully and ask questions against the wishlist you made in the first point above. Here you are looking for the best fit for your intended outcome which is your business website that looks and does exactly what you want it to.

Ask for references and portfolio from the website designers tendering and make sure they allow you to have a quick chat with their referrences or portfolio customers.

When you talk to the references you want to know how the website designers handle the design process, their terms and how you agree to sign off each stage of develoment. What guarantees do they have and very important; how long their support goes for. They must have an interest in making sure the website does what you set out to do. If this will involve search engine optimization you must make sure you understand how this helps and also should that be left out, you want to know how to measure the website effectiveness versus your intended outcomes.

Once you pick your website designer you want to think about the website hosting and what comes with it or features of the website hosting.

Make sure you are clear who the domain name you choose is registered to. Some unscrupulous website designers have been know to register their clients’ domain names in the designer’s name and asking for ridiculous amounts of money to let it go. Make sure you do not run into this one.

Can you afford the service? Is it bespoke or ‘off-the-shelf’ ? Just make sure you know what you are getting upfront.

Can you change and update your own website or will you have to pay management fees on a monthly basis? These days most website designers supply CMS or content management systems so you can change and update your own website later to keep it in line with your business at all times.

When all the above are sorted out the rest is customer service. How do they treat you and other customers? Are they helpful? Friendly? Honest?

Do they explain everything to you or bamboozle you with techno language? Always be clear about what’s going on with your website at all times. After all you are very good at managing your brick and mortar store, you should be taking full control of the website as well.

If there is any talk of contracts make sure you know how long for and how to get out of it if you decide to do this.

You have been in business for a while and know what you do in general, I suggest you take the same rules as before to the website as well.

Hope this helps. You can direct any questions here.

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In this video we show you what some common website terms actually mean.

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If you are just starting out, putting your products online need not cost you everything you’ve got! Take a look at the <!– B:123LinkIt –> ----

Click here for a website quote and get started from only £99!

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Here’s a quick video on Frequently Asked Questions on our Domain Names. Video will play in Full Screen simply hit the ESC (escape) button to return to normal view.

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Here is a video that shows the technology we use at Jax Internet to enable you to host your wordpress and other CMS software for less than £130 for the whole year. Basically for website design you need a domain name and a CMS (content management system) to simplify maintaining your website. Watch the video for an explanation on how this works and to sign up.

Click here to take advantage of our DIY website and hosting for under £150

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Video shows you how to pick a website designer in East Kilbride, Glasgow or anywhere at all in Scotland.

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