So your traffic is going through the roof yeah? It's all
becoming a bit too much? You're getting lots of sales enquiries
through your website every day? You want to send visitors away
from your site for good? Just follow these five Sure Fire Ways
and your site will be a tumbleweed ghost town in no time.
Way No. 1 - Clog Up Their Internet Connection
Imagine it. They're happily surfing around on Google looking for
your 'widget' and everything's going smoothly. Your website
appears in the first page listings (congratulations you must
have employed magnet4web or another highly-esteemed website
marketing company!) and they click through to you. Then their
internet connection starts to clog up. It is positively groaning
and creaking under the strain of downloading your homepage which
has so many images on it takes over 30 seconds to appear. They
look at the progress bar at the bottom of their screen. It reads
'20%'. They look at their watch and then click on the little 'X'
at the top right of their screen. Well done - you've just sent
away a visitor - for good.
Way No. 2 - 'I am not a number - I am a free man'
Along come some more visitors. They lick their lips in
anticipation of viewing your widgets which they are very
interested in buying - they have their credit card handy.
They land on your homepage and all is well, at first. "The
benefits of choosing Widgets Inc. are as follows..." Your
homepage is laden with customer-focused benefits and selling
points - excellent. But wait a minute. What's that at the bottom
of the page? It's not what I think it is, is it? Oh dear, there
in black and white is one of the fundamental no-nos in web
design that is guaranteed to send the message "This website was
built by my dog":
"Welcome - you are visitor number 102"
Regardless of the number (and let's face it 80% are either you
or your family!) you will be sending away people in droves. Well
done - your site is becoming less busy by the day. Let's move on
to way number three..
Way No. 3 - "Help me buy from you - please..."
They're lost. You have built the site around what seems a
logical approach but your visitors are lost. You've given most
prominence to testimonials but they just want to send you an
email. They click on three, four and sometimes five pages but
can't find your phone number or email address anywhere. But it's
okay - of course they have a spare quarter of an hour to hunt
through your website (that doesn't have a site map) to find your
contact details when they already have another window open with
your competitor's website - complete with email address, phone
number, fax number, street address, mobile number, map and GPS
coordinates..
Yes - you've guessed it - you're one step closer to that
ghost-town..
Way No. 4 - 'Please Let Me Watch Intro'
Yes, admit it - you once thought the best thing on the planet
was a website that started up by having a revolving animation of
the company logo that exploded, span round a bit to an 80s
sounding techno tune and then re-constituted itself in the
centre of the screen with the immortal words:
"Click here to enter site"
Strange that - "enter site". That's what all your visitors were
trying to do when they typed in your web address or clicked on
your link but instead they were faced with Jean Michelle Jarre
and some possessed bit of code that replicated the effect of
someone regurgitating your business' corporate identity over the
screen. Nice. Flash intro = trash intro. Use em (the intros) and
lose em (the visitors).
Way No. 5 -"I am five years' old - I like things that flash"
One day in the future a law will be passed that will make it
illegal to use scrolling text, flashing images, rotating heads,
animated animals and boucning cursors on a website. Your website
is here to do business. It is supposed to be a serious tool in
your marketing armoury. It should be used to convey useful
information to your visitors and convince them that you are
worth doing business with. Dress it up with flashing icons,
swirling graphics, flashing logos and spinning pictures and the
merry-go of visual delights will just make your visitors sick.
They will leave your glitzy fairground never to return..
Michael Cheney, magnet4web.com (c)
About the author:
Michael Cheney is a successful entrepreneur and owner of
magnet4web.com - one of the UK's leading website marketing
companies. You can read more of his articles and download your
FREE website marketing guide "How To Turn Your Website Into A
Customer Magnet" at www.magnet4web.com
