Comments on: 11 Pitfalls Small Businesses Make When Creating Their Websites http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/11-pitfalls-small-businesses-make-when-creating-their-websites.html Houston Web Design and Search Engine Optimization blog. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:40:52 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Kathi http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/11-pitfalls-small-businesses-make-when-creating-their-websites.html/comment-page-1#comment-57277 Kathi Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:13:37 +0000 http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/?p=8#comment-57277 This is great advice for small businesses -- I've seen way too many shoot themselves in the foot because they've violated the above rules! Unfortunately, too many small businesses still do not understand the issues involved and will continue to fall into these traps... This is great advice for small businesses — I’ve seen way too many shoot themselves in the foot because they’ve violated the above rules! Unfortunately, too many small businesses still do not understand the issues involved and will continue to fall into these traps…

]]> By: Nick Stamoulis http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/11-pitfalls-small-businesses-make-when-creating-their-websites.html/comment-page-1#comment-57276 Nick Stamoulis Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:39:00 +0000 http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/?p=8#comment-57276 The same goes for the SEO industry. You get what you pay for. It is tough to convince people that have been doing offline marketing for the better part of their life that all of a sudden the internet is vital. The same goes for the SEO industry. You get what you pay for. It is tough to convince people that have been doing offline marketing for the better part of their life that all of a sudden the internet is vital.

]]> By: mark rushworth http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/11-pitfalls-small-businesses-make-when-creating-their-websites.html/comment-page-1#comment-57274 mark rushworth Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:03:06 +0000 http://www.webdesignerhouston.com/blog/?p=8#comment-57274 Here's my 10p worth: 1. F**k the design. Get an SEO to design your site and promote it to #1 on Google for competitive terms. this will have the knock on effect of: a. your site will have content written to attract the maximum amount of hits from your qualified target market b. It will be written in the language of your customers resulting in a higher conversion rate c. It will integrate with any PPC focused landing pages making your site convert more d. You'll probably get your content written as part of the deal getting your project turned around quickly (as opposed to writing the content yourself which, lets be honest, could take years) e. Your sites URL structure will be search friendly resulting in immediate high rankings in Yahoo and MSN 2. Spend a little more than you want to to get things done right 3. Start with a PPC/Adwords campaign to get instant results and metrics that will help evolve your site quickly based on real-world data 4. See your site as a continuous project - the markets changing and your 2 year old site that hasn't been touched since launch is quickly looking out of date 5. Be involved - commit to keeping a blog or updating facets of the site. this will help your business look like you care about your marketing. Blogging takes less than 10 mins a day so get to it! 6. Design it for your customers - YOUR PERSONAL TASTE AND PREFERENCES DON'T MEAN SQUAT - ask your designer to look into your market and where possible focus group it through some of your valued customers and i don't mean ask them 'do you like it' get them in and have your designer spend some face to face time with them. 7. I don't care how precious you are about your pricing, having a login/signup before your customers can see prices is a MASSIVE MISTAKE and will stop 99.9% of people from buying from you. If you're prices are too high to be comparative then look at your business model instead. 8. Don't look at your competitors for inspiration - their websites are already old and out of date. Remember to innovate, not replicate. That's it from me - there's loads more I just gotta go to work now. Here’s my 10p worth:

1. F**k the design. Get an SEO to design your site and promote it to #1 on Google for competitive terms. this will have the knock on effect of:

a. your site will have content written to attract the maximum amount of hits from your qualified target market

b. It will be written in the language of your customers resulting in a higher conversion rate

c. It will integrate with any PPC focused landing pages making your site convert more

d. You’ll probably get your content written as part of the deal getting your project turned around quickly (as opposed to writing the content yourself which, lets be honest, could take years)

e. Your sites URL structure will be search friendly resulting in immediate high rankings in Yahoo and MSN

2. Spend a little more than you want to to get things done right

3. Start with a PPC/Adwords campaign to get instant results and metrics that will help evolve your site quickly based on real-world data

4. See your site as a continuous project – the markets changing and your 2 year old site that hasn’t been touched since launch is quickly looking out of date

5. Be involved – commit to keeping a blog or updating facets of the site. this will help your business look like you care about your marketing. Blogging takes less than 10 mins a day so get to it!

6. Design it for your customers – YOUR PERSONAL TASTE AND PREFERENCES DON’T MEAN SQUAT – ask your designer to look into your market and where possible focus group it through some of your valued customers and i don’t mean ask them ‘do you like it’ get them in and have your designer spend some face to face time with them.

7. I don’t care how precious you are about your pricing, having a login/signup before your customers can see prices is a MASSIVE MISTAKE and will stop 99.9% of people from buying from you. If you’re prices are too high to be comparative then look at your business model instead.

8. Don’t look at your competitors for inspiration – their websites are already old and out of date. Remember to innovate, not replicate.

That’s it from me – there’s loads more I just gotta go to work now.

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