Web Site Tune-Up: Common Web Site Problems

Here is a checklist of common issues, problems, ideas, and improvements that are often overlooked.

Testimonials–don’t leave home without them
Something that should never be missing from a business web site are testimonials. I’d sooner forget my kid at a public swimming pool as forget testimonials on my web site (well…almost).Testimonials are simple yet powerful. They are quotes from past clients and happy customers telling future site visitors that doing business with you is a smart move. Unfortunately most web sites I’ve visited don’t have them.

Testimonial pages are often the most frequently visited pages on a web site. If people praise you, get in the habit of asking them if you can quote them on your web site.

Try to have the testimonials address concerns that first-time visitors might have, or highlight the main benefits visitors may be looking for in your company. There’s nothing wrong with coaching your happy customers on what kind of quote would benefit your business, but be sure to post the quote in their own words and style of talking.

If possible, have a testimonial signed such that future clients could verify the information in the testimonial. For example, a testimonial signed “Richard Jones, President XYZ Inc.” or “Emma Richards, Pasadena CA” carries more weight than a testimonial from “Bob T.”

Beware of errors
Nothing hurts web site credibility as an obvious mistake sitting right there on your web site. Here are some of the common problems (and some you may not have thought about).Sounds obvious, but we’ve all seen broken links, grammatical errors, and misspelled words, all of which act as negative points against a web site. Errors will erode your credibility. Spell-checking is a good start, but everything published on your web site should first be read by someone besides the author for clarity and continuity as well as errors and mistakes. This practice has saved me a lot of grief.

Different Browsers
One other thing you may not realize: It is very possible your site will look fine in one browser but not in another. Your site should work correctly in all major browsers. If your site looks good in Internet Explorer, but not Firefox, a good percentage of your visitors may have a bad impression of your site.

Here are the latest numbers on what browsers are most popular.

Unfortunately, if you do find something wrong on one browser and not another, it will probably take a knowledgeable web designer to fix the problem.

Keeping the site up to date
If the year is 2009, and a web site says “Copyright 2002″ at the bottom, I assume the company has gone out of business and someone forgot to take the site down.It is well worth looking over your web site on an annual basis to make sure there isn’t dated or outdated information causing visitors to question the relevance of the information they’ve read elsewhere on the site. Having a site with fresh updated content is not only a draw for site visitors, it helps with your search engine rankings as well.

One helpful thing, when keeping dates up-to-date, is a handy bit of javascript you can put on your site that will automatically take the current day, month, or year and display that on your web site. So if you want your copyright date at the bottom of your page to always display the current year, search for “javascript today’s date” in a search engine and you’ll find snippets of code that you can place on your web site to do things like this.

(this is also used to create urgency when selling something–”This deal ends midnight on !!” although most people aren’t fooled by that anymore)

In this way blogs, articles, and up-to-date announcements about company and industry news do much to show that you’re open for business and thriving.

Effective “About Us” or “Company” pages
Most sites already have a page that talks about the company, but many don’t allow site visitors to get to know the company through this page. If this page simply restates the services your business provides, it’s a lost opportunity to add a personal touch to the cold, vast void of the Internet.This page could also be titled “About Us” or “Who We Are”. Site visitors who go to these pages are looking for something that tells them what the company is like on the inside.

Tell your visitors about the people who make the business what it is. Let them know how the owner built the company on hard work and integrity, describe the charitable work the CEO is spearheading, or that the company hosts daycare for their employees. Feel free to let people get to know your company from the inside as long as–and this is the key–you can supply this information in such a way that it supports the impression your trying to give site visitors (see Site Flow and Focus).

You can get fancy like Saturn, simple like Google, or funny and conversational like Ben and Jerry’s.

Evogear’s “About Us” page is a great example of a company page that speaks to their target market.

Remember: many of your customers are just as interested in what kind of business you are as they are interested in the products or services you provide.

Visit us at SourceWizz for more information on Web as well as mobile development.