Read our top no-no’s so that you won’t make a mistake. These items should be included on every website, find out what they are and why you should always make sure to include them at Design-World Watch today.
Top Web No-No’s
Click in to read our post today at Design-World Watch for our top no-no’s on website – no contact form, no address, no phone number.
You’ll want to read why you really should include these items in your website.
Website No-No’s – No Contact Form, Phone, & Address
There are several no-no’s when it comes to web design. They are not including a contact form on your website and not including your phone number and your address.
The whole purpose of having a website is to be able to have information available for prospects 24/7 and to make it really easy for them to get with you to buy your products and services. When you do not have a scripted contact form integrated into your website, you force people to either phone you (not a bad thing in some cases) or force them to send you email which requires that they press send in their email client.
Instead, you should provide a contact form with minimal required information and a one click submit button. Let the script perform the heavy lifting of formatting and sending the completed form directly to you, not the prospect. Some people do not have their email client configured to auto-send and out going mail can sit there for days while they stew over why you have not contacted them, not understanding that their note to you is still sitting in their out box.
The other frequent mistake that I see is client’s not wanting to put their address and phone number on their website. This is a fast way to lose trust. Being an effective salesman on the Web is all about communicating trust. When you refuse to put your phone number, you say “don’t call me, you may have a problem I don’t want to be bothered with”. When you don’t have your address, you say “don’t’ buy from me, if you do, try to find me to get a refund”. Clients and prospects want to know who they want to or will be trading with and how accessible that person will be when they have a problem. Make sure to include these important items on your website to communicate trust and build your sales opportunities.
Splash Pages Are Old School!
If you are not sure what a splash page is, I’m sure that you have seen them and maybe just not known that they have a name. What I am speaking about is the home page of a website that has a Flash Movie and no content, sometimes it is interesting and sometimes it is simply colors and balls moving around ending up spelling out the companies name or finally showing the website navigation. Sometimes it is just a big graphic without any text on the page.
Several years ago splash pages used to be the rage. Everyone wanted a big graphic image that was a single graphic or composite image. Then the splash market moved to Flash introductions.
There are still some customers who are stuck back in this phase and request this totally search engine unfriendly entrance to their website. In the past several years much has changed in the world of search engines. Now, the most important page of your website for search engines is your home page. If you have no text on your home page, your website will be stuck in search engine limbo and you will have to use pay per click to drive traffic to your website. You will never be able to compete for top organic placement with a splash page; it simply does not provide search engines the fodder that they need to place you well within their results index on your keywords.
So, unless your pockets are deep and you are not adverse to paying for your website traffic steer clear of splash pages and don’t use Flash as your full home page.