“I hired a web design company who promised to build me a great website. While it looked good, it cost me about $12,000. Well, I didn’t see the results I was looking for and my website didn’t bring any additional traffic or new customers.”

Why did this happen? Here are some of the most frequent mistakes that contribute to a website failure.

Website Not Optimized for Search Engines

Thinking about SEO as a totally different project is a big mistake. Basic Search Engine optimization should be at the heart of the website, with the pretty presentation built around it. Keyword research, search engine friendly navigation and structure, duplicate content, multiple domains, Google local listing, 301 redirects, semantic markup, HTML and CSS coding, unobtrusive scripting all do matter when designing an optimized website.

Not So Great User Experience

A website success always depends on its visitors. A surprising number of web designers ignore user interaction entirely and base their web design only on a design perspective. This typically results in inappropriate design or just decoration. Web designers are much more than pixel pushers. They have intimate knowledge about the Web and how users interact with it. They also understand user interfaces and design techniques, including grid systems, white space, color theory and much more.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs, Apple

Website Performance Not Measured

You cannot value something you cannot measure. Fortunately, there are numerous metrics you can use to evaluate the impact of the website.

Google Analytics generates insightful charts and reports about the number of visitors, page views, content distribution, traffic sources, keyword report and much more. If you don’t have it installed, how do you know that something needs to be adjusted and improved?

To have a successful website you should know right from the start how to measure the performance of your website. Measuring your site’s success is crucial if you want it to make the biggest online impact. This is because by measuring how often people visit your website you know how well your site is doing online and how well it is appealing to its target audience.

Previous Work and Results Not Checked

Don’t believe everything you are told, but ask for examples and results! Are previous clients happy? Are their websites looking good and professional? Do they have any traffic?

“Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?”
- Google

Check your web design company portfolio and look for quality and the latest trends and technologies. Ask for adequate contact information, documentation, and explanations.

From a SEO point of view there is no benefit of using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Unless you are really good at it and you are able to create a large audience around you, you are just wasting your time. Most small business owners are not online stars or have excellent social media communication skills, so doing it just for SEO doesn’t make sense.

Following I’m going to show you why.

Nofollow Atribute

“Nofollow” is an HTML attribute used to tell search engines that a link should not influence the link target’s ranking . It’s purpose is to show search engines what links are not to be trusted, without merit, or just spam.

How does Google handle nofollowed links?

“In general, we don’t follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web.”
Google

Links from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

Links from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn do not matter for the most part. I haven’t seen any websites without good quality links, ranking high on Google just because they have Twitter and Facebook accounts.

For showing purpose I’m going to pick one of the largest web companies, Google. So let’s see how Google accounts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are treated.

Facebook Links

For Facebook, a lot of the profiles are not public so Google cannot see them. Links from public profiles are “nofollow”.

Twitter Links

Most of the links on Twitter are “nofollow”, including user website link.

LinkedIn Links

Most of the links on LinkedIn are “nofollow”.

Blog Commenting Links

Most of blog commenting links like Blogger and Wordpress are “nofollow”.

What is the conclusion? Engage in social media because you really want to do it not for SEO purpose. When you hear an SEO professional that tells you he is going to create social media accounts for you, walk away. Social media is about you and your online community not about Search Engine Optimization.

Visits Report

The number of website visits is extremely significant particularly when you are tracking SEO results. Many site owners will be surprised to find out that they have an average of only 5 visitors per day. Ways to improve traffic is to optimize the website for search engines and run a low budget Google AdWords campaign. However, there is no magic to have a lot of traffic all of the sudden. Traffic is gained in time.

Bounce Rate Report

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that once they landed to the website they will not browse it or view additional pages. A high bounce rate means your website design doesn’t work or the information is not presented properly. The website fails to attract and engage visitors – they will not find anything that catches their attention and will move on. Big chunks of text are especially not helpful in quickly delivering the message.

Average Time on Site Report

Finding a balance between the amount of information and effectively delivering the website message is the key when designing a website. In an ideal world, visitors will read everything the website offers, but in the real world they will just scan the page to find things that get their attention. The usual average time on site is 2 to 3 minutes. How much information can someone read in 2 minutes?

Traffic Sources Overview Report

This report explains where web traffic is coming from. Visitors may come by typing the website url into their browser, by links to the site or from search engines results. If search engine traffic is really low, redesigning and optimizing the website will help.

Content Overview Report

This report provides information about what pages have the most page views. For example, if one of the main menu pages gets the most traffic that information needs to be enhanced. Vice-versa, if one of the pages doesn’t get much traffic, it means that visitors are not interested in clicking on it. Changing the page name might help.

Local Search Volume on Google

Are you a realtor in Raleigh? Here is what you’re missing:

Are you a restaurant owner in Raleigh? Here is what you’re missing:

Are you a dentist in Raleigh? Here is what you’re missing:

The list can continue. To find out how many searches you are missing, use Google Keyword Tool.

Typical Traffic Before & After Redesign

Here is one example (Windows Doors and More) of what you can expect after you redesign your website. Data is taken from Google Analytics.

Before Redesign

The client had 7 visitors from search engines for an entire month.

After Redesign

The new, redesigned website, has 450 visitors coming from search engines! Even if only 5 visitors become customers, in a year, this means 60 new customers coming from search engines.

At Better Image we don’t offer empty promises of huge amount of traffic. We do offer our clients websites with results.

Style Sheets help optimize your site by separating content from design elements. If you are not familiar enough with CSS, I suggest contacting a professional for the job.

Research Keywords

Optimizing your site means you need to know what people are searching for. Google has a very useful tool that will help you identify the most important keywords you need to focus on: Google AdWords: Keyword Tool.

Have Enough Content on Your Homepage

The homepage is the most important page in your website. Include all keywords you want to rank for in the page content. If keywords are not included, your website will not show up in search results. Try to avoid using images to display important keywords.

Choose Page Titles Properly

The title tag needs to be matched with the page content. For example, don’t use the word Raleigh in the title if “Raleigh” is not included in your homepage content. The title length affects the weight of the keywords, so don’t dilute them by using a lengthy title.

The title is also important because it is used by Search Engines to display Search Engines Results Pages. A smartly chosen page title can lead to a better click-thru rate.

Do Not Use Multiple Domains

Duplicate content will penalize you with Search Engines, and rightfully so. How would they know which domain is most important to display in search results? What is the purpose of the other domain? It promotes confusion for visitors and for Search Engines.

Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics will provide very important statistical data: how many visitors the website has, what pages are most requested, what is the bounce rate, what keywords bring the most visitors and so on.

Use Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools provides detailed information about your pages’ visibility on Google. This helps to identify the errors, broken links, crawling rate, external and internal links, statistics, diagnostics, etc.

Have at Least Three Quality Inbound Links

Quality and relevance of links is very important. If you do not know how to measure links’ quality, ask for professional help. One quick way to do this is by letting all your friends know about your website.

Do Not Participate in Link Building Schemes

As soon as Search Engine algorithms will detect that you are in the business of building links they will penalize you. Unless you bring real value to the web, there is no quick way to the top – you will only rank in time.

Don’t Fall for Huge Traffic Promise

Because they are afraid that you will not use their services, some SEOs are appealing to clients with promises of a huge amount of traffic. Don’t believe false testimonials, but ask for examples and results! Did you notice that SEOs will try to avoid showing the measurable benefits of using their tools? Ask smart questions before paying $150 per hour for their services.

Recent Testimonials From My Clients:

“Working with Better Image has been a tremendous success for us! They are experts at what they do – also extremely dependable and agile. We presented Better Image with several time-sensitive challenges, and they were able to come through every time with a fantastic product. They have directly impacted the success of our business, and we look forward to working with them on an ongoing basis.”
Dave McNasby, COO, Optimal Resume, Durham NC

“Thank you again for your great work on my website! You did a fantastic job with the optimization. I have gotten several compliments from people who seem to know when a website has had an excellent job of this done, vs. just average.”
Michele Moss, Owner, Natural Pain Relief

“Writing to thank you for the work done on our website. Our main goal was to improve SEO and in just these few short months we have been seeing positive results of that and it only gets better.”
Todd Gillespie, Owner, Windows, Doors and More

We are so happy that we found you and are still extremely pleased with the website you designed for us. Once you completed the SEO, you told us to be patient and we would start ranking higher in the search engines, and within only a few months we were ranking on the first page in Google and Yahoo for most of our search terms. We will continue to recommend you to everyone we know and wanted to say Thank you, again, for the amazing job you did!
Rachel Jett, DTF Mechanical, Inc.

For me, as a web designer, this is by far the most important measure of the quality and value I provide.

Internet marketing is a comprehensive marketing campaign and usually involves paid clicks (PPC). SEO can work great as an online marketing strategy but the two are not the same. Usually you need to pay in order to run an internet marketing campaign. For search engine organic results you don’t have to pay a thing (assuming the optimization work has been done).

Small business owners are confused about this issue. They think they need to pay in order to rank high on Google search results. But most of them can have some qualified traffic to their website without running an Internet Marketing campaign and this is all about optimizing their website to be properly indexed by search engines. A couple of good trusted links will do a good job in allowing the search engines “know” that a website is important.

Can Internet marketing do much more than SEO? Yes it can, but it also costs money. Most small business owners do not have big budgets for advertising and don’t know enough about online marketing to trust it. This doesn’t mean they cannot have qualified traffic to their website.

To conclude, SEO brings free traffic to your website, Online Marketing brings paid traffic to your website.

That’s why Google is so important – people use it to find products or services. For your small business website this means business.

Small business websites need to focus on attracting qualified traffic to their websites with search engine optimization (SEO) and local targeted online marketing (Google AdWords pay per click), then converting that traffic in calls to action. Those leads will definitely result in new customers. Traffic quality will always be more important than traffic quantity.

What is traffic quality? For example, if you are a law firm in Raleigh-Durham and someone gets to your website searching “lawyer Raleigh”, this is qualified traffic as that visitor is a potential client.

How do you measure traffic quality? Some will say it is impossible to measure, but the answer is simpler. The number of new customers coming from your website is a direct result of your traffic quality.

Deceptive marketing professionals promise they will increase traffic to your website but fail to mention traffic quality. They are happy to cash in the money for a job that won’t bring you much business.

Because they are afraid that you will not use their services, they are touching their clients’ soft spots with promises of huge amounts of traffic. That’s why some SEOs make promises they can’t keep. Once you realize it, it might be too late, as they have full control of your website.

You should always bind your SEO contract by the number of new clients you’ve got, not just traffic.

Before search engines start to give your site a good ranking, they need to achieve a certain level of trust with you and this will grow in time as you establish your website. Once deceptive techniques are detected it will be really hard to rank well again.

Your website is an investment in the future. Don’t let anyone do things that you don’t fully understand, as it may cost you a lot in the long run. Sooner or later deceptive marketing techniques will fail.

Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation.
Google

Before deciding on a professional, read what Google says about SEO.

Some Search Engine Optimization experts (SEOs) will argue that SEO doesn’t have anything to do with Web Design, is a totally different issue and you need a monthly fee in order to rank high on Google and have qualified traffic. Traditional SEO services can charge thousands and usually provide 3-6 months of service and link building packaged in.

Submitting news articles, press releases and directory listings are all types of SEO strategies as long as they are not spammy and keyword rich. These things take time to do, and in a competitive market, must be reviewed on a daily basis.

Let’s discuss our methodology. When someone designs a website with us, we take care of all the details like keyword research with Google AdWords Tool, optimized CSS/XHTML code, website architecture, meta description tags, title pages, keywords targeted, etc. This means proper web design. META and TITLE tags, H1 and H2 tags, are HTML markup language not SEO tags. After going live, we place some good links in our portfolio and on some relative websites and web design galleries and that’s it.

In a couple of months the website will rank great, usually on the first page of Google search results and the client doesn’t pay any monthly fee for qualified traffic. Down the road we analyze Google Analytics data and recommend improvements. The traffic will stay there, it won’t just disappear when search engine optimization process stops.

A couple of weeks ago, someone contacted one of my clients and told him that his website is not optimized for search engines and he can rank much better for a couple of hundreds monthly fee. He is on the first page on Google Search Results. Here is the client: Saber Exterminating Pest Control. Search on Google “Termite Inspection Raleigh” or “Pest Control Raleigh”. Is he on the first page? So, what more would the SEO company do? Will a monthly SEO fee get them a better deal?

Read and watch this recent interview with a well known Google engineer in USA Today. Try and find something that makes sense for a monthly fee. I couldn’t.

I am aware there are lots of SEO professionals out there that do a good job for their clients, especially for medium businesses. All I’m saying is that someone who modifies title tags and meta descriptions, and builds some links, shouldn’t be paid a monthly fee unless he has a comprehensive SEO plan and is able to explain what exactly he will do and what results you might expect. Giving client access to Google Analytics and explaining basic search principles is a must for any honest SEO professional. Google AdWords plus search engine optimization plus a great-looking optimized website definitely leads to success.

I would like to hear some comments about this issue. Maybe I don’t get it right, but then, how some websites rank high and do well on Google without any monthly fee? Read more about Search Engine Optimization in Raleigh-Durham.

Not Optimizing for Search Engines

Ask your web designer about search engine optimization. Ask him how he plans to optimize your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) is not rocket science, it’s better web design.

Search engine optimization will not bring you hundreds of visitors per day all of the sudden, but all the visitors will come to your site searching for a service you provide. If you do landscaping in Raleigh you should come up when people are searching “landscaping in Raleigh”. These are the kinds of visitors your website needs.

Search “Web Design Raleigh” or “Web Design Durham, NC“. If the company or designer you are considering for a web design is not there, don’t bother. If they don’t know how to get their company website to the top, do you really think they’ll do a better job for you?

Using Tables Instead of CSS (Style Sheets)

HTML tables are a thing from the past. Since search engines evolved to be such an important part of the Internet, websites started to optimize their content for search engines and CSS web design offers just that: is optimized for search engines, is faster, more reliable, allows separation of design from content and much more.

Not Being Clear What the Website Is About

Attention spans are very short these days. Visitors shouldn’t have to figure it out what your website is about. It should be specified big and clear in every page. In their eyes.

Have Confusing Navigation

The best, proven way, to please everyone is to make the navigation clear and simple. Design should help enhance the most important sections of the website. People are browsing websites in different ways. Redundant navigation actually helps. For example, on our website only 5% of visitors click on portfolio but 70% of them click on Recent Projects thumbnails. This helps drive more people to our most important part of the website, our portfolio.

Using Small Text

What is the point in using small text? Everyone agrees that crowded design doesn’t help, so thinking you show more information to the user is a mistake. You have all the space in the world. Use it wisely. Don’t be afraid of empty space. Give menu links breathing space. Text too close to the edge looks bad, not professional.

Using “Drop Down” Menus

Sometimes it is hard for users to notice all your main menu items. Hiding important information from them and thinking they will go on top of your menu expecting a rollover is a big mistake. Identify the most important sections in your website content, and structure the information accordingly so you won’t need rollover. And you don’t have to agree with me, but the most visited sites on the Internet (Yahoo, Google, MSN, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter) are not using drop down menus on their homepage.