3 Reasons Websites Fail – and What You Can Do About It

1) The purpose of your website is unclear to you. Everybody has a website, right? So you need to have one too! Wrong! You may need a website, but having a website because everyone is asking for the link, or because you want to keep up with your competitors isn't a good enough reason in itself. For a website to succeed it needs to be designed with its specific  purpose or purposes in mind.

What you can do: Check out competitors' sites and see what functions they have. Try to discern what they are getting out of each function, and if you could get the same benefit. Talk to a web designer, describe your business, and see if he or she can give you any ideas.

2) Your website gets no visitors.  You have heard how the internet can increase sales by opening up a worldwide market. So you have a website built, and wait for the leads to come in. And wait. And wait. Many people are under the impression that once their website is launched the search engines will immediately find it and display it on page one of the searches they feel are appropriate for their site. Unfortunately, that's not how it works. The internet is very competetive and you need a good marketing plan to drive traffic to your website. The budget for this activity will often exceed the cost of the website itself.

What you can do: Budget marketing into the project from the start. Maybe you won't initially have the flash animations, or all the bells and whistles that are meant to impress. Go with a clean, simple, professional design, and put the savings towards getting some traffic! SEO companies know how, but be careful. Read more...

3) You have no time for maintenance or content development. It is extremely common for small businesses to do their website in-house. Do-it-yourself software packages make it easy to get something on the Internet. That something is often an obviously amateur design with a few paragraphs and "under construction" or "coming soon" plastered everywhere. Or the content is obviously outdated, with a copyright date from 5 years previous, giving every visitor an impression of your company that you DON'T want them to have. Having no website is better than having a website like this.

What you can do: Start your web project ONLY when you have time to develop the complete content. Determine how much time or money you can spend on ongoing maintenance, and plan your website around those parameters. Don't overextend yourself!

Share Link: