Website Mistakes

There are dozens of website mistakes that can be discussed. I’ll focus on the five most common website mistakes. Ones that, if fixed, can create the most benefit to the website owner. Benefits such as getting more traffic, generating more visitor interaction, capturing more customer leads, and acquiring more customers.

One could categorize this into 3 areas that include technical mistakes, graphical mistakes, and marketing mistakes.

Technical mistakes are certainly important, but may be less common these days due to better website creation tools.

Graphical mistakes are more subjective and may not be considered mistakes by some. Choosing the correct colors, font sizes, pictures, and graphical elements are important.  Graphical mistakes are extremely common. How much they matter is debatable. Certainly some matter more than others.

Marketing mistakes are likely just as important as technical mistakes. Your website could be performing flawlessly (technically) but do nothing for you in terms of getting leads and customers, or whatever it is your website is supposed to do for you.

The 5 Common Website Mistakes To Avoid

1. The website is all about the owner and not about the visitor. This may sound odd but it actually makes sense. Of course the website should be about the owner (or business).Isn’t that what the visitor wants to know about?

   Yes, that’s true. But here’s the deal. The website should certainly contain information about the website owner, but it should do so in a way that applies to the visitor. The visitor should feel that your website applies to them.

   Your website should connect with the visitor and address his/her needs. It should be what your visitor is looking for. You want your visitor to say “this is for me” when they arrive.

   Solution: Create website content that addresses the website visitor’s needs and desires. Put the information that is about you and your business on the “about us” page.

2. The website is confusing. This problem is due to the design layout.

   There are 2 things to consider here.
   The first thing is this. When the visitor arrives at your website they should immediately know what they’re looking at. They should know that they came to the right place. If you get this wrong they’ll be gone in a split second.

   Keep your site simple and easy to read. Also consider that the visitor may first land on one of your internal pages rather than the home page. So every page is important.

   The second thing to consider is this. What do you want the visitor to do? First their attention must be captured. Then the next step must be clear. If you want them to read something make it easy for them. If you want to get them to call you make sure your phone number is extremely easy to find. If you want them to buy something make that easy too.

   Solution: Your website should be simply and easy to understand and easy to navigate.

3. The website is out of date. Not only is it a big negative for you when visitors see outdated information, it’s also harmful to your search rankings on the search engines.

   This is sometimes a tough one to fix. Many website owners do not have the time to keep updating their website. Some businesses may have a marketing person who can handle this. It can be part of a daily or weekly routine to keep fresh content on a website. But many businesses just don’t get this done.

   The good news is that it’s not a difficult thing to fix. Part of the solution is to have a website that’s easy to update. A website that is not static, one that is built on a content management system like WordPress is a great solution.

   A content management website will usually have a blog built in. This will allow the simple procedure of logging in and adding fresh content. The content can be pictures, video, or text. If you have a static website consider converting your website to WordPress. It’s a fantastic solution.

4. Not promoting the website. Many things can be lumped into this one. Your website can be promoted both online and offline.

   Offline methods include telling people about your website, printing your website domain name (www.yourcompany.com) on your marketing material and business cards, and any other way you can think of.

   Online methods include advertising banners on other websites, pay per click advertising on search engines, and links on other websites pointing to your website.Many of the offline methods are pretty common. Many of the online methods can be tricky. You should hire a professional internet marketer to handle pay per click advertising. SEO or Search Engine Optimization includes both website technicalities as well as building links from other websites. This may also require the assistance of an Internet Marketer.

   Just remember, using only the “Build it and they will come” method is not going to cut it.

5. No call to action and no testimonials. I’m actually lumping 2 items into one because these two things are very important. Remember that people who are surfing the web are moving very quickly. If they don’t see what they want they’re gone in an instant. If they’re confused and don’t know what to do next, they’re gone.

   So make sure you make it extremely clear what they should do next. And make sure you call them to an action that moves them toward your goal.

   Your goal might be getting them to call you, email you, or simply read something or watch a video.

   The other thing to remember is that most of your website visitors do not know you. Since they don’t know you they don’t trust you. If you want your visitor to do something they have to trust you to some degree.

   The best way to start building trust is with testimonials from other people. Testimonials from others are far more believable than what you say about yourself. A testimonial can be text or video. Provide the name and city of the person who gave the testimonial for more credibility.

   Call your website visitors to action and support that with testimonials.

For more information on website mistakes just do a search on Google. You’ll find a lot more. For the most important information about how to help your website check with us!

Video is a great online marketing tool. Many people would rather watch how something is done than read copy from their computer screens.

When you know the routine it’s easy to create videos. The process has a few tricks to maximize results. But it’s relatively quick and easy once you get the hang of it.

Video and Search Engines
When we talk about online video we have to talk about YouTube. YouTube is the largest video website in the world. Youtube videos are uploaded at a rate an astonishing rate. It is estimated that 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute! The site is growing fast.

Google often shows videos listed among their search results. They call this “Universal Search”. Many times there are just one or two among the 10 results listed on a page. But wow do those they stand out. Even if a video is listed at the bottom of the search page it seems to attract more attention than all the other text-only listings. Having your video on a search results page can be a great advantage.

Creating Your Video
Making your own video is easier than it’s ever been before. Thanks to the many choices of cameras and easy to use websites you can begin making videos right away.

Many smart phones can record videos. This is the handiest way to do it since you always have your phone with you. To get better quality you should use a camcorder. Digital camcorders are common and do not require tape or disks. They are easy to use. Copying video to your computer is easier too!

There are numerous resources and video tips online to help you with the creation of your videos. The biggest tip is to use an external microphone or separate digital audio recorder to get good sound. If you don’t try this you won’t even realize the difference it can make. Getting good sound really does add a lot of quality. Lighting is another obvious concern. For indoor videos you should have plenty of lights. Outdoor lighting is best on shady days because shadows can be tricky to control.

Editing Your Video
You can get by without editing your video. But if you want it to be a bit more polished then using a video editor will do the trick. Many editors are available in the under $100 range. I’ve used Corel Video Studio for several years. Other video editors in the same price range include CyberLink PowerDirector, Adobe Premiere Elements, Roxio Creator, and Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Check the web for a review of video editor software. With a video editor you can easily cut out unwanted pieces of video, add music and narration, and add on screen titles to the video. After editing your video you will end up with a polished version of your video. This is the version that will be ready to upload to the internet. I usually create videos in the MP4 format, then upload them to Youtube.

Getting Your Video Online
As mentioned in the previous paragraph I use Youtube. You must set up a Youtube account before you upload your videos to it. I recommend creating a Google account and using that account when signing up for your Youtube account. You’ll have one Google login that will get you into all of your Google products. Once your Youtube account is set up you should create your Youtube channel. Fill it in with all of your business information as completely and accurately as possible.

Use a video aggregator to publish your video to multiple video sites at one time. I don’t use aggregators but many internet marketers do.

I recommend putting your website URL (http://www.yourwebsite.com) in the description of your Youtube video. Also put the link to the Youtube video into your Youtube video description. The reason is that some websites copy videos from Youtube and display them on their own website. This helps optimize your Video and can generate more traffic as it gives you a back link.

Integrate Video on Your Website
After you’ve uploaded your video to Youtube the next step is to integrate the video in your website and other online properties. The video below shows how this is done. Youtube makes it very easy to embed videos on your website. Google places and other online business directories make it easy to include video within your business listings too.

More Reasons to Use Video
Besides that benefits of generating more leads for your business, video can make a much more personal connection between you and your potential customers. So much of the Internet is impersonal. There is a big lack of trust online, and rightfully so. To do business online you must build a trusting relationship with your customers. Video can get this done faster than most online techniques. I always recommend a simple, short welcome message on a website home page. One that greets the visitor and takes the first step towards building trust.

So it’s important that Google (Bing and Yahoo too) knows about your website.

When Google knows about your website it’s called being indexed. Google has an index of all the websites it knows about. Your website may automatically get indexed eventually. But to make sure that it does there are some things you can do. You can let Google know about your website by registering it in Google Webmaster Tools. Another way is to place a link to your website from another website that is well established and popular. Using Google Webmaster Tools is the best way.

Search Engine Basics
Search Engines, or Search Sites as I like to call them, are very important these days. Search sites have made the difference between success and failure for many modern businesses. Yes it’s very important for most businesses to have a website. But having a website that is easily found by people searching is equally important. Thousands, if not millions, of great websites exist and never get visitors. It’s like having a business brochure and never handing it out.

Your website needs to be in the search engine’s index. But that’s just the first step. Your website must also be optimized to make it rank high so that people will find it when searching.

Your website may have many pages. Each of those pages can be indexed in the Search Engines. Many times only the home page gets indexed. It is to your benefit to get all of your pages indexed. You can ensure that all your pages get indexed by creating a sitemap. A sitemap is a file that tells the search engine about the pages on your website. The file is created by you and uploaded to your website directory. You can then indicate the location of the sitemap in Google’s Webmaster Tools. There are free online tools for creating sitemaps that you can use. You can also create a sitemap manually. Click here for more information about sitemaps.

The next step is Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

How to get Your Website to Rank Higher
You must add unique and compelling content to your website to make it rank higher in search results. Think about your website visitors. If you were them would you be interested in what your website presents? This is the long term solution to having a website that will do well and attract visitors. You want people to like what’s on your website so much that they will share it with people they know and install links from their websites back to your website. You can build links to your own website yourself too. Do this by posting comments and articles on other websites and insert links back to your website. These things are the building blocks of creating a successful website that will bring visitors, leads, and customers.

It’s beneficial to embed images and videos into your website content. Images and Video are indexed just as website pages are. Often times a video or image will appear mixed in with the regular search results. When this happens that video or image will stand out and may attract more clicks than the top listing that contains only text! Images and videos can be optimized.

Name your image file descriptively and use the “alt” and “title” tags with descriptive text. The image at left has a filename of target-website-seo.jpg. It’s alt and title tags are “website seo”. To optimize a video use a descriptive title and fill the description field with a long, well written description. Here’s more information about using video to promote your business.

Below is a video created by Google’s Matt Cutts discussing links to websites to help your website rank higher.

Search Terms are Keywords
The common term is “Keyword”. Keywords are the words that people type into the search box on a search website. It’s important to know the keywords that your potential customers commonly use to search for your type of business. Those keywords should be used throughout your website. Keyword research can be done using Google’s free keyword tool. Here’s a great article about how keywords work.

Using WordPress and Some Extra Tips
Wordpress is a website building platform. It is a content management system. Don’t get it mixed up with WordPress.com though. WordPress.com is a free blogging platform where anyone can create and publish their own blog articles. WordPress, the website building platform, is software that can be used to create websites. WordPress.org (as opposed to wordpress.com) is it’s home.

Many large web hosting companies such as Godaddy.com and BlueHost.com provide WordPress hosting. The installation process is all built in making it fairly easy to install and set up.

WordPress is probably the most popular content management system used to build websites in the world. It’s also great for building websites that are optimized for search engines. WordPress is open source and free to use. It’s functionality is constantly being upgraded and enhanced by people around the world who create pieces of software called “WordPress Plugins”.

I highly recommend wordpress as a website platform. I also recommend the “All in one SEO Pack” for wordpress to help optimize your website.

Your Website Cannot Stand Alone
Your Internet Presence can be greatly enhanced by doing things outside of it. These things include setting up your business directories, video accounts, and image accounts. You should set up your Google Places directory listing as well as your Bing and Yahoo business directory listings. Youtube is the second largest search site in the world. You should create a youtube account and tie it to your website. You should also tie your business directory listings to your website. Do this by adding your website URL (www.yourcompany.com) to each listing. Image sites such as flickr are great places to set up an account for your images.

The idea is to get your website mentioned on as many places as possible. Back links (links from other websites) are very important. Having a link from your local chamber of commerce is a great back link for your business.

So spend a little time, or hire someone, and get your website on Google. Optimize it and your other web properties and make use of the Internet. You’ll be glad you did!

10 Google Search Tips. Some of the tips below are taken from Google’s tips for searching.

1. Use Phrase Search – Simply put double quotes around your search term to get exactly what you looking for. For example, a search for “Alexander Bell” (with quotes) will skip pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.
2. Search a word exactly as is. Google searches for synonyms by default. But if you put quotes around the word it will search only for that word.
3. Exclude terms. By putting a dash (minus sign) before a word Google will exclude that word from search results.
4. Wildcard search. Use an asterisk to fill in a word that could be variations of a word. From Google’s example, Obama voted * on the * bill will give you stories about different votes on different bills. The * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.
5. Stock Lookup. Type a stock symbol and Google will return information about that stock.
6. Calculator. Use Google as a calculator. Just type in your calculation and Google will return the answer.
7. Word definitions. Type define:word and google will return the definition for you.
8. Weather. Simply type weather and google will return the weather for you. If you want the weather in any city typeweather cityname
9. Movie listings. Just type movie and you’ll see movie showtimes in your area. This one is great!
10. Track Flight Status. Here’s an example: Delta Flight 5838

Bonus Tip: The answer to life the universe and everything. Type this into Google for the answer!

If you’d like help with your website or website rankings contact us at Databae Systems – 320-491-4732.

When making a video for your business think about what the viewer might be interested in learning. Keep it simple and clear. Plan it out and make sure you cover all your points without getting too long.

Be aware of background noise. Use a lapel microphone if you can.

At the end of the video be sure to provide your contact information including your website address and email address.

An important and effective tip to get your video found on Youtube is to carefully name your video in the video title field. Make sure you use commonly used terms in your video title. This will make your video easier to find.
You should add your website url (http://www.yoursite.com) to the first line in the video description.

You should accurately describe the content of your video. Be sure to complete all of information in the video fields after uploading your video to Youtube. Specify your location and the date. Set the video for public viewing and enable sharing of the video.

Promote your video by sharing it on your website and social media sites such as facebook and linked-in. You should also upload your video to other video sites such as DailyMotion, Ning, and Hulu.

If you have trouble thinking of what to make a video about, just think about what you would say to a customer who asks you questions about your business. Explain what you think the customer wants to know. But don’t be boring. Give them information that they would be interested in. This means do not brag about your business, rather tell them how much they will benefit from what you have to offer.

Many people do not take the time to bother with video. But this is good news to those who do because it means there is less competition.

Google offers a pay per click advertising system. This means you pay Google for your Ad only when someone clicks on your Ad. This method of pay per click can help you prevent wasting advertising dollars on people who are not interested in your product or service. In fact, the pay per click system allows you to zero in and target your advertising to very specific people. This is probably the greatest benefit of pay per click advertising.

Google is not the only company that offers pay per click advertising. You can use pay per click on Bing, Yahoo, and even Facebook. However, Google’s share of the search market is about 80% with Bing and Yahoo sharing the remainder with other smaller players. Facebook pay per click advertising is extremely tricky because it does not involve targeting by user behavior. For example, then a Google user searches for a water filter, a business that sells water filters can target that user. This kind of user behavior, or searching, does not happen on Facebook. Facebook does allow targeting by demographics but that’s a topic for another day.

Google’s pay per click advertising system is called “Adwords”. Google Adwords is an extremely powerful tool. If used correctly it can bring you a ton of hot prospects who are looking for what you are selling.

Here are some Google Adwords Tips that can help get you started.

1. Make sure you set your daily budget
2. Set your Ad Campaign to use the Search Network Only (Turn off Display Network)
3. Set your Geographical Location to the area you can sell to
4. Start with only a few very relevant keywords
5. Create 2 Ads that are slightly different and test to see which does better

One more thing about advertising with Google Adwords. The advertising and the clicks make up only part of the process. It does no good to drive qualified leads to your website only to have your website fail to do it’s job. Your websites job is to get the website visitor to take action. That action might be to get them to call, place an order, or sign up for your email list. Google Adwords advertising is a powerful tool. But it must be used correctly or else it will not work. If you’d like to learn more about this excellent opportunity in advertising visit our web page that explains a quick way to get started with Google Adwords.

And just how do they submit your website to those search engines? The truth is, most websites that are included in the search engines were never submitted. But they’re there anyway!

One way to get your website on google is to add a link to your website from another website that is somewhat popular. For example, you can add a link to your website from a youtube video. Just enter http://www.yourwebsite.com in the description area for the video. Or if you are a member of your local chamber of commerce you can have a link from their website to your website. Google will follow those links and add your website to their search engine.

Now. Here’s the best way to get your website on Google. Use Google Webmaster Tools and enter your website there. Here’s the link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools.

You will need a Google Account. If you don’t have one you can get one free here: Free Google Account

When you are logged into your Google account and are at the google webmaster tools site, just click the “Add Site” button and follow the instructions.

Not only will this get your website indexed it will help you inform google what your website is about. This will help you rank higher in the search results.

Be sure to follow the basic search optimization suggestions and put a lot of good content on your website.

For more about internet marketing visit our site.

This video focuses on Salons and Spas but it is relevant for any business.
Here’s the link:

Attract More Customers to Your Salon and SPA

Most businesses will discover a huge improvement in new customer traffic with very little investment.

This is all about the Google Places Business Directory Listing that every business already has. Every business should pay attention to this. Don’t loose out on customers looking for your type of business online.

Watch the free video TODAY for an extra bonus:

**5 Marketing Secrests for Salons**

This is really important for all small businesses, especially locally owned salons and spas. Don’t miss out!

The Secret and the Special Offer
The secret to getting more customers online is mainly about optimizing your website and business directory listings. We have bundled together the services that will get this done for you and have put a big discount on it.

The Benefit is Permanent
Get your online business presence in order and optimized so you can get more customers. The goal is to get more local people to find your business and become customers while they are searching the Internet using a PC, a Tablet PC, or a Mobile Phone. This is an investment that will be a permanent benefit to your business.

Special Offer Details
Your Google Places Directory Listing Claimed and Optimized – $399 (Normal Price)
- This service includes optimization with keywords from the keyword analysis process
Yahoo & Bing Listings Claimed and Optimized – $199 (Normal Price)
- This service includes optimization with keywords from the keyword analysis process
Keyword Analysis – $199 (Normal Price)
- Determine the words people use when searching for your type of business
Website Analysis – $99 (Normal Price)
- Discover problems that prevent your website from showing up when people are searching for it
YouTube Account Setup with Video – $199 (Normal Price)
- Get a Youtube account set up for your business. We will also create 1 video. Videos help your local business directory listing rank higher. They also help build a relationship with your visitors.
The total value of all of these services is $1095
Your Cost is $599 ($496 Savings!)

Optional Basic Package
Your Google Places Directory Listing Claimed and Optimized – $399 (Normal Price)
This service includes optimization with keywords from the keyword analysis process
Your Cost is $299 ($100 Savings!)

Why Such A Large Discount?
We are reaching out to new clients and are trying to get the word out about the services we offer. This is a very limited offer and it will expire on December 31, 2011.

Why Choose Us?
We are experienced in local search optimization and have spent months studying and testing the techniques required to optimize websites, build back links, implement online advertising such as pay per click advertising, and get more customers online. We know the tricks and the details of how to get local search working.

Full Guarantee – No Risks for You!
We guarantee all of our services. We guarantee that we will do a thorough job of analyzing your Internet Presence. If we fail to do what we promise to do and you are not satisfied with the results we will refund your investment in full.

TESTIMONIALS from Our Clients
Databae Systems was very helpful with the start up and design of our new website. They kept in contact and were very prompt. With their tips and suggestions, they have optimized our Google Places Directory Listing. We are now showing on page 1 of google. Previously we were on page 3. This has already proven beneficial for our business. – Ashley Kuhnau, Advantage Rehab Inc.

The Internet is a huge, huge tool for us. We’ve tried many different things to try and get our people to contact us. Databae Systems has not only met our needs but exceeded our needs and is continuing to increase those inquires to our company which is what we’re all looking for. They helped us increase our business by 37% in 2009, 57% in 2010, and we are anticipating a record breaking 2011! Databae Systems is the one that can handle it all and get you to where you need to be. – Craig McMillan, Dust Busters USA

Our Google Places Directory Listing was not showing up when searching for hair salons on Google. After having Databae Systems optimize our listing for us we are showing at the number one spot for “hair salon”! Thanks to Databae Systems for getting our Google Places Directory Listing optimized! – Clara Olson, Hair Profiles

Databae Systems has been our choice for web and internet production and programming since day one. We are fortunate to have them locally, allowing quick response and superior customer service. – Kerry Olson, Definitive Woman Magazine

Contact Us Today at 320-961-4732 or jeff@databae.com!
We are very excited about the online opportunities that exist for your business. I believe the Package we are offering will get your online presence to where it needs to be so you can start getting more customers online!

OFFER EXPIRES: December 31, 2011 at 4:30pm

Contact Us Today at 320-961-4732 or send an email with this form…

P.S – Please note that this offer does NOT include a new website. However, if you need a new website we will give you a discount on that too!

P.P.S. – You must contact us before December 31, 2011 at 4:30pm to take advantage of this offer. We cannot extend this offer past that time.

P.P.P.S. – You’ve probably received many Internet related offers coming from far away places. It’s hard to know who to trust, especially if they are not local and you know nothing about them. Since we are LOCAL, I hope you will be encouraged to let us help you with your Internet needs.