Common Web Site Mistakes – And How To Correct Them

You’ve built a Web site, you’re getting a decent amount of traffic, but you aren’t getting the kind of response that you had anticipated.  Perhaps you’ve reviewed your Web site statistics and have found that nearly all of your visitors leave after viewing your home page.  Asking your nephew to design your company Web site may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but there are several simple mistakes that many inexperienced developers make that can drive visitors away in droves, ultimately defeating the purpose of your Web site.

The bad news is that these problems are currently running rampant on many small-to-medium-sized company Web sites, but the good news is that these can all be solved -  easily and inexpensively.

Problem: Multimedia Abuse

Multimedia abuse occurs when animation, video, or audio hampers the ability of visitors to properly view your Web site.  There’s no doubting the fact that the use of multimedia can engage visitors in a way that plain text and images cannot, however, poor design or improper implementation of good design can place a virtual “No Trespassing” sign on your Web site’s front door.

Your audience is vast and diverse.  Not everyone has the same browser, plug-ins, connection speed, and screen resolution that you have in your office.  What does this mean?  Your Web site needs to address the “lowest common denominator” for all four requirements.  Your main site navigation should be presented in text or simple images, not in a Flash movie.  Imagine visiting your Web site and seeing nothing but red X’s all over the screen, with no navigation provided.  Sure, downloading Flash is easy and fast – but it’s even easier to find your competitor’s Web site.

Even if the plug-ins don’t present a problem, connection speed may.  It’s very easy to turn a small animated image into a 4 or 5 MB file – meaning that anyone on a dial-up connection will have to wait 20-40 minutes for your page to completely download.

Also, make no mistake about it – video “introductions” (when a video is presented before your home page with nothing else on the screen) are not a good idea.  Even with a small “skip intro” button at the bottom of the page, these videos are better placed elsewhere.  Your main message should be presented clearly on your home page to your visitors in the shortest amount of time possible.

Solution: If you have a Web site that uses a lot of multimedia, allow the user to choose whether or not they see the multimedia.  If your main navigation is placed in a Flash movie or inside  any other element that requires a plug-in, either present a redundant text-based navigational area or re-do the navigational area in a more friendly manner.

An alternative solution would be to devise a method of detecting whether or not someone has the requirements for viewing the multimedia-rich Web site and diverting them to a second, non-multimedia Web site if they do not.  This isn’t the best solution, because unless you’re using a system that shares content, it means maintaining two separate Web sites.

If you do not yet have a Web site but want to include multimedia, consider designing it in a way that uses multimedia gracefully.  One site that NuRelm developed, http://www.harris-assoc.com, is a good example.  Notice how the video is placed in a prominent area, but does not contain main navigation, nor does it contain any of the key text on the home page.  So, if someone doesn’t have Flash, the site is still functional and engaging.

Problem: Adobe Acrobat Overuse

If most of the content on your Web site is contained in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents, your message is likely not getting out.  Even with a cable or DSL connection, launching Acrobat Reader and downloading an enormous file will take precious seconds.  Then, if you do not have the proper version of Acrobat Reader, it will take even longer.

Some documents will need to be in PDF, such as anything that needs to be printed out and mailed in, but most do not.  If it can be placed on a regular Web page, it should be, for speed and search-ability.  Yes, it’s true – anything placed in a PDF on your Web site will not be searchable by search engines.

Solution: Move as much content from PDF documents to plain Web pages as you possibly can.  If you absolutely must have most of your content inside of PDF’s, provide summaries of the documents along with the links to them.

Problem: Your Web Site Doesn’t Function Properly on Popular Browsers

A good Web design and development firm will make sure that your Web site looks and feels the same way on top Web browsers on both a PC and a Mac.  This may be something that you never think about – but should.  If visitors who are using Mozilla, Firefox, or anything on a Mac visit your site and can’t make out what is on your Web site, they’re going to go elsewhere – and they won’t take the time to tell you.

According to w3schools.com Firefox is dominating browser usage with 48% of the market compared to the handful of other browsers as of May 2009.  A far cry from almost five years ago when the dominating browser was IE6.

If your Web site does not function properly,  or worse yet,  looks completely garbled on one of these alternative browsers, you’re turning away approximately 10-15% of your visitors.

Solution: Download some of the more popular browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and take a look at your Web site.  If you don’t have a Mac, find a friend or colleague who does and ask him/her to review your Web site.  If problems exist,  they’re likely easily fixed.

Problem: A Home Page with Little or No Content

Your home page may be the only page that a visitor sees on your Web site before moving on, so you need to try to capture their attention as quickly as possible.  If your home page only presents your logo and links to other parts of your Web site, you’re likely losing visitors who do not immediately understand what you do or see what they are looking for.  This falls under the category of “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

Solution: Find ways to add elements from each main section of your Web site to your home page.  You can even get software that will “share” text from other sections of your Web site with your home page,  so you will only have to update information on the main page and the home page will update automatically.

Problem: Stale Content

The text and images on your Web site don’t change often enough to keep repeat visitors pleased.  Most visitors won’t continue to frequent a Web site that offers the same information time and again.  With a Web site, you’re not locked into the same text and images as you are with print – you CAN and SHOULD make updates often.

Solution: Find two or three sections that you can regularly write about and publish at least one or two major changes per quarter,  such as an events calendar,  an “industry news” section, or an articles section.  The rate of change is largely dependent on your industry,  your audience,  and the purpose of your Web site.  Software that can help you make the updates to your Web site without having to pay for consulting hours with your Web developer is becoming more affordable by the day.  A popular and easy-to-use Web site content editing software is NuContent, developed by NuRelm. NuContent is highly affordable and is delivered via the Web, so no special software or technical knowledge is needed.

If you’ve read through this list and none of these problems seem to fit, there may be some other, hidden issues with your Web site that are very specific to you.  As a free service, NuRelm provides Web site assessments to anyone who asks.  Our team of knowledgable professionals will investigate your Web site and find potential problems, providing helpful suggestions based on years of expertise.  To fill out a Web site assessment form please visit NuRelm’s Assessment Page.