What Not to Do With Your Website

Why do people come to a company’s website? There are many answers to this question:
• Learning about a product or service
• To get support for products already purchased
• Obtain financial and business information about a company
• Communicate with the company
• Learn about job openings
• Scout out ideas for their own use
• Play games/have fun/waste time

For a small business that is focused on creating value and addressing customers needs quickly and efficiently, this should echo in your website design. Don’t think of your website as a marketing tool, instead, think of it as a way to present information. It is not a marketing method because those that come to your page are mainly those that have been directed there, they already know what they’re looking for or are there to further investigate a referral they’ve been given. The biggest problems for website visitors are: (1) complex website navigation (2) design extravagance and (3) overload of information.

First, if you have lots of information to put on the website or want to use a website as a tool for 2 way interaction with customers, it is very important that navigation is simple to follow. If customers can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, then, they are likely to get frustrated and leave. Remember, the internet is a place for interested customers to retrieve information about your product or service. If they feel you’re wasting their time they will leave and won’t come back. People don’t want to feel stupid or inept. They will go somewhere else where navigation isn’t as difficult.

I have seen some websites that were extremely creative, and that is cool for expressing your creativity, but sometimes people don’t interpret your creativity and this is failure on your part. Understand that I’m not talking about a little color or showing your brand on the website, I’m talking about getting extravagant with your pages. Making navigation a game or putting a whole bunch of “glitter” up that isn’t conducive to giving people what they are there for is costly and if done incorrectly is ineffective.

Finally, a website should have a max of 8 featured items per web page. Some people cram too much information on a page, don’t be one of them. This is equally frustrating to a web user. Overloading a first timer with an overabundance of information is most likely intimidating. When you do have lots of info, be sure to break it up into sections so people can pick and choose what is really important to them.

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