How To Waste a Website
This week I had to tell a local company their website was a waste of money. The designer they used had made almost every mistake possible in creating their website. If you want to avoid this disaster here are a few ideas to discuss with your designer.
When someone registers a domain name for you, be sure that you are listed as the owner. Your designer should be your administrative contact, not the owner of the name. It is very common for designers to claim ownership when registering client’s domain names. You often do not find out about this until you try to move your account somewhere else. You can check your ownership by looking up your domain registration with a free service like Domaintools.com.
Sometimes a designer will lock the domain, which means you cannot move it away from the listed servers without their permission. Locking a domain does make sense but there are better ways to protect your website without being held hostage.
Broadly speaking, the web is based on html code. All the pretty pictures, sounds and movies that you see are interpreted by programs that allow you to see the pages or hear the sounds. Websites can be designed using flash and this is a common way to create very engaging visitor experiences. However, before your visitors see your website, the search engines must be able to understand what you have.
The company website I mentioned had no html code that could be read by the search engines. The only way you found the site was to type the name exactly as it was registered. If you miss-spelled it by one letter you saw an error message without any prompts for the correct spelling. The search engines could not help you find it because there were no code definitions for them to read.
When you design a website, you must keep your market in mind as you decide what to content to include. If you sell to wholesalers, your website must include content that is useful for them. Different areas can be aimed at different users but visitors must be able to find relevant material quickly and have a compelling reason to want to do business with you.
Finally, a website should provide a way for you to understand what your visitors want. You must also include ways for you to continue the conversation with them after they have left. If you ignore the marketing aspects of the website and fail to offer value statements to your visitors, you are not getting much value for your money.
If you need help finding out who owns your domain name or have questions about your website, you can write to me at mike@myklin.com for assistance.
(Mike Myklin is an author, speaker and ecommerce owner who can help your business get more value from the Internet. You can reach him at www.Myklin.com where these articles are archived.)
When someone registers a domain name for you, be sure that you are listed as the owner. Your designer should be your administrative contact, not the owner of the name. It is very common for designers to claim ownership when registering client’s domain names. You often do not find out about this until you try to move your account somewhere else. You can check your ownership by looking up your domain registration with a free service like Domaintools.com.
Sometimes a designer will lock the domain, which means you cannot move it away from the listed servers without their permission. Locking a domain does make sense but there are better ways to protect your website without being held hostage.
Broadly speaking, the web is based on html code. All the pretty pictures, sounds and movies that you see are interpreted by programs that allow you to see the pages or hear the sounds. Websites can be designed using flash and this is a common way to create very engaging visitor experiences. However, before your visitors see your website, the search engines must be able to understand what you have.
The company website I mentioned had no html code that could be read by the search engines. The only way you found the site was to type the name exactly as it was registered. If you miss-spelled it by one letter you saw an error message without any prompts for the correct spelling. The search engines could not help you find it because there were no code definitions for them to read.
When you design a website, you must keep your market in mind as you decide what to content to include. If you sell to wholesalers, your website must include content that is useful for them. Different areas can be aimed at different users but visitors must be able to find relevant material quickly and have a compelling reason to want to do business with you.
Finally, a website should provide a way for you to understand what your visitors want. You must also include ways for you to continue the conversation with them after they have left. If you ignore the marketing aspects of the website and fail to offer value statements to your visitors, you are not getting much value for your money.
If you need help finding out who owns your domain name or have questions about your website, you can write to me at mike@myklin.com for assistance.
(Mike Myklin is an author, speaker and ecommerce owner who can help your business get more value from the Internet. You can reach him at www.Myklin.com where these articles are archived.)
Labels: designing websites, ecommerce, register domain name, websites
posted by Mike Myklin at 12:52 PM
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