The Top 10 Web Site Blunders

You've got a web site – great. But do you have an effective web site?
Is it constructed and worded to grab the interest of casual visitors and pull them in?
Use this checklist to perform a free do-it-yourself web site makeover.

Blunder No. 1: Your company name heading your web site.

As you assess the marketing power of your site, the mantras to apply are "Who cares?" and "So what?" Brandishing your company name in big, bold letters as the title or headline of your web site causes you to fail those tests. Listen, I know that almost everyone does this. Nevertheless, it's a mistake.

Remember that people often arrive at your site never having heard of you. If they're searching for help with their immigration cases, which header will reassure them that they've come to the right site: "Jones, Popkin, & Graves, LLC" or "Green Card, Citizenship, & Political Asylum Cases Handled"? If they're looking for supplies for their off-brand hot tub, which hooks them better: "Steamboat Springs Spa Supply" or "Everything for the Commercial Spa and Home Hot Tub"? In most cases you'll do better leading with what you do rather than with who you are.

Harbinger Press, for example, puts its company name discreetly in the background while its marketing message, "Welcome to the home of the finest books on issues around the child-parent bond," fills the foreground.

Blunder No. 2: Unclear focus.

Who is your site for? When I was asked to look at a site selling a learn-to-read system, it was clear that the audience was parents rather than teachers or school administrators.

However, I couldn't tell what age range or grade level the system was geared toward. Without that information, it would be hard for some parents to know for sure whether the products would suit their Susie or Sammy. Always make your target audience crystal clear, not just to avoid inquiries from the wrong people but also to reassure those you are trying to reach.

Very often a site has more than one audience, and it goofs by trying to orient and serve all of its constituencies with one set of information. But even sites designed with multiple audiences in mind can stumble. The first page of Monster.com's Talent Market used to invite "Free Agents" and "Employers" to click on these terms to be directed to appropriate offerings. These labels may confuse first-time visitors.

"Free agent" is new-economy-speak for self-employed folks and contract workers. Yet if you survey freelance graphic artists, programmers, and consultants, to name three groups squarely in this site's target market, you'll find that many associate “free agents” with sports rather than themselves. And to many people, the term "employers" signifies those hiring for salaried positions -- not the intention here at all.

Ants.com also targeted freelancers and people in a position to hire freelancers. But it did so in much clearer language; instead of the ambiguous "Employer," it used "Project Managers." And instead of the even more ambiguous "Free Agents," Ants.com reached out to "Freelancers and Service Businesses."

Blunder No. 3: Cutesy navigation options.

One element on which you should not lavish creativity is the wording of the main navigation buttons for your site. It's true that legendary showman P.T. Barnum attracted crowds by a sign reading, "This way to the egress," but most of his showgoers good-naturedly paid another entrance fee when they realized they'd been snookered through the exit. On the web, people don't eagerly click on baffling signposts. Clear, prosaic navigation labels attract more traffic than weird, mysterious ones.

Here are some examples of obscure navigation options that need rewording:

"Do you HQ?" – at FreeAgent.com
"emedalert" (a new product that first-time visitors would not recognize) – at Drugstore.com
Remember, clarity trumps cleverness.

Blunder No. 4: Presuming that shoppers already know what they want.

Two summers ago, before speaking at an industry seminar, I toured the web sites of several dozen top camera stores. Almost all of them presented their wares by categories (digital cameras versus 35mm), broken down by brand and model and with a jungle of technical specs. This suits geeky shoppers -- a minority of their clientele -- but leaves in the dark those wanting to know which camera to buy for a vacation, business, or new hobby.

Only two of the camera sites I looked at indicated a desire to help shoppers intimidated by all the features and jargon. And yet, as I pointed out in my talk, when unsophisticated buyers came into their shops, salespeople knew how to help them find cameras they'd be happy with, and the store happily pocketed those profits.

To organize your web site effectively, use the mental categories favored by your clientele, not those that are second nature to industry insiders, you, and your peers. Consider grouping items by purpose or occasion, such as, for a gift-basket site, "Housewarming," "Get Well," or "Thank You."

Blunder No. 5: Emphasis on "we" instead of "you."

Usually people arrive at your web site hoping to gain some benefit for themselves -- to learn something, purchase items they need, divert themselves from the reports they're supposed to write, or solve business problems. When you spend most of your space singing your own praises, you force visitors to ponder the question, "What do you have to do with me?" Speaking to the visitor as "you" makes a faster, more vivid connection.

One home page that I looked at used "our" or "we" 15 times in 423 words and mentioned the name of its product or company 5 times. "You" didn't appear even once. This implies that the company is more interested in itself than in its potential customers. Another site with a comparable percentage of the word "we" also placed its "about us" navigation button first, before "our services," and filled the rest of the home page with the titles of five press releases, each beginning with the name of the company. That's egomania.

In comparison, Popula.com, a vintage auction site, uses "you" 15 times and "we" only 4 times in the marketing copy at the bottom of its home page. In doing so, this company communicates an inviting, client-centered attitude. Whether you sell to businesses or consumers, you'd do well to follow its lead.

Blunder No. 6: Lack of contact information.

Anyone already uneasy about handing over credit card information to God-knows-who becomes even more wary when he or she can't find a phone number and location for the merchant. Site visitors who don't know how to contact someone if they have a question about the ordering process or would like to return the order are site visitors likely to abandon their shopping carts. Avoid this by clearly laying out who and where you are.

Don't try to regiment and control inquiries by providing only a web form. Not only do visitors' questions often fall outside a form designed with just one purpose in mind, web forms do not convey the reassuring message "We're eager to please, and we'll get back to you right away." Instead the web form medium says, "We'll respond when we get around to it." Someone with an urgent question or problem might rather call, and not finding the phone number with which to do that, go surfing away to your more accommodating competitor.

Blunder No. 7: Typos, sloppy formatting, and grammar mistakes.

I'm not the only shopper bothered when I read a product description like this: "A mutlifunction timepiece that puts your name in light's." Far from being an optional final touch, proofreading should be required before any new web page goes live. Your credibility and trustworthiness depend on the details being correct, proper, and neat.

Ray Bernard, a product development consultant based in Laguna Hills, Calif., once discovered that navigation errors, broken links, grammar or spelling mistakes, and typos caused visitors to a financial services web site to pull back from doing business there. All of his testers "declined to participate in any real transactions on the site," he says.

Blunder No. 8: Lack of clear, complete pricing information.

People shouldn't have to load up a shopping cart and head to the checkout before being told the cost of items and shipping. Likewise, usability experts tell us that being asked for credit card information before shipping charges are revealed causes droves of online shoppers to change their minds about buying.

Blunder No. 9: Requests for unnecessary information.

I encountered a mind-boggling example of this while trying to hire a research assistant through a local business college, which had outsourced its job listings to a brand-new web site. In addition to asking me to describe the job I wanted someone for, the site asked whether I was male or female and my age and income. I couldn't believe my eyes. None of those three facts had anything to do with hiring an assistant. I even called the college back to learn whether there was some other way it could pass along my job request to its students. Nope! I posted the listing elsewhere.

Before requesting any personal information, ask yourself whether you truly need it. And if the reason you need that fact may not be obvious to your customer, explain. For example, since many online shoppers don't believe you need their phone numbers, you should explain to them why you need it (if in case you do!).

Blunder No. 10: Confusing order forms.

Recently a conference-call service I do business with implemented a new online, real-time reservation service. I thought I'd followed directions and booked a two-hour time slot one Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. At 8 p.m., though, more than a dozen strangers dialed into our phone line, disrupting my telephone session. I firmly told the newcomers they'd made a mistake, and they got off the call.

But the next day I discovered that the reservation system was at fault. Neither the web interface nor the email confirmation told me clearly that I'd actually booked one hour two weeks in a row rather than two consecutive hours on the same night.

Only one method ensures that people find your order forms as clear as you think they are: testing. Ask several people who have never used your site to perform specific tasks there. Observe the ease or difficulty they have completing searches or orders and change your site accordingly. When mistakes occur, clarify your instructions and retest rather than moan that people can't follow directions.




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