Quick Tips: 4 Costly Web Mistakes

Your website should encourage visitors to linger and explore. Avoid these website errors that lead to frustrated users and lost business.

1. Your contact information is missing or difficult to locate. No contact information equals no sale.

   Solution: Your phone number should be prominent on every page of your site. When a customer is ready to buy make sure you're easy to reach.

2. Your website is more "salesy" and less informative. People have started unconsciously ignoring anything that looks like an ad online. See Jakob Nielsen's example of the U.S. Census Bureau's website mistake.

   Solution: Avoid designs that are all fluff and marketing. Create designs that solve visitors problems and provide them with information.

3. Your site is too wordy. People don't come to the web to read, they come for solutions and answers.

   Solution: Steve Krug, usability consultant and author of Don't Make Me Think, recommends cutting your content in half...and then cutting it in half again!

4. You have poor page titles. Page titles are displayed on search engine results and users' bookmarks.

   Solution: Start titles with key words of what people will find on that page. Don't start titles with "The" or "Welcome" unless you want to be filed under T or W.

Read the full article: Website Mistakes by the Dozen