Website Promotion Info Article:
The Top 10 Most Ludicrous Things You Can Do on Your Web Site
We have a running joke in our office that one day we'll load a page and it will say
"You have reached the end of the World Wide Web" and it will be the truth. I've
visited so many web sites in my time, it's unreal. There are a few web site features
and practices that keep popping up, in spite of their highly detrimental nature. I find
myself, day in and day out, advising clients to remove something or other from their
web site, as it is stunting their online business potential. But cleaning up the World
Wide Web one client at a time isn't very efficient, so I'll share with you the Top 10
most ludicrous things you can do on your web site, and hopefully we'll get this
mess cleaned up.
1. Frames - Most of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, saying "I know, I
know" but there not only still is a large amount of sites that use frames, there's
actually a very dangerous counter-argument to this going on.
Frames section off your web site, making multiple smaller windows within one page.
It sounds harmless enough, but the code behind a page with frames is very short,
only referring to the pages that fill in the smaller windows. This hides any text you
have on the page, any headings, any links, image names and alt text, comment tags,
and a lot more from search engines. In short, frames hide 99% of your site's content
from the view of search engines, fooling them into thinking your site is virtually
bare.
Now, recently Google has announced that their search algorithm is newly able to see
past frames and find all of your site's content. Problems remain, though, in that the
algorithm does not yet index pages with frames well. This also doesn't fix the
problem with other search engines.
There's some kind of Rebel Frames Force or something that use Google's new
indexing ability as an argument for frames, among other even less valid points. "But
what about this and what about that?" they argue. I say to you, rebel framers, why
bother? I really don't understand why this inane argument continues. You can easily
avoid any potentially harmful side-effects of frames by using tables. It looks exactly
the same, if not better, and we know for sure that all search engine robots can
decipher the uncomplicated table code. A smart site owner would simply not take
the risk.
2. Keyword-rich Text Embedded in Images - Another fabulous way to shoot yourself
in the proverbial foot. Search engines can't read text in an image, so if most of your
web site's textual content is within images, you're pretty much done for. Come on
people, keywords are what make the Web go 'round! The idea is to have as many
applicable keywords as possible within your site visible by search engines, right? So
it really doesn't make much sense to take some of those keywords and hide them.
There is no counter-argument to this. It's simple, if you want traffic, get your
keywords out of images.
3. Entrance Pages/Flash Intros - This practice will not just have a negative impact on
search engine optimization, it also subtracts from your site's user-friendliness.
Search engine robots want to find out what your site is about as soon as they can. In
other words, they want to find content on the front page. This means that there
absolutely must be keyword-rich text on your opening page. It is fairly easy to
comply with this while having an intro page, but it doesn't solve the user-
friendliness issue.
Think, for a moment, about how you surf the web. If you're like the majority of
surfers, you're looking for information and you want to find it fast. Simply put, an
intro page is one more step that has to be taken before getting to the good stuff.
Speaking from personal experience, if a site has a flash intro or an entrance page
and I'm in a rush (which defines my life), I'll leave and find another source of the
info I'm looking for. Essentially, I feel that sites with such opening pages, have little
respect for my time and I don't want to venture into the site any further to find out
how many other ways the site owner has found to elongate the simple act of
supplying information. It's simply easier to find another site. Really, what exactly is
the purpose of an entrance page? Try as I might, I just can't think of one.
4. Music - O.K., This is my biggest pet peeve. There is nothing more annoying than
sitting down on Sunday morning, steaming cup of coffee in hand, opening iTunes to
listen to the latest R.E.M., starting to surf the web and suddenly hearing a midi
version of Greensleeves turn Losing My Religion into something that sounds more
like a cat dying.
With the growing popularity of mp3s, you'll be hard pressed to find someone who
doesn't listen to their own music while they're on the web. It is absolutely
guaranteed that you'll turn some visitors away from your site if you insist on having
music load with it.
"But, what if I offer a button that will turn the music off?" some people ask. Most
web site visitors who are listening to music won't stick around long enough to find
your off button. In my case, as soon as I hear one note, I hit the back button. There
is always another site to find the information I'm looking for.
5. Large Media - Java applets, video media and images can be a real pain in the
you-know-what when they haven't been optimized. There are so many poorly
written java apps out there that will actually crash browsers. Large videos and
images will cause your site to load slowly and visitors to leave before they even see
the fully-loaded page.
Make sure you test any java apps across several browsers. If there's any delay in
loading, trash it or fix it.
Optimizing large images is also necessary. Adobe ImageReady will significantly cut
down the loading time of your image while saving it's quality and dimensions.
Video should be an option. Never have it load with your site. Most people don't have
the time to sit around watching videos on web sites, let alone wait for videos to
load. Pictures and text will tell your story just as easily.
Internet users still use dial-up accounts and with the rise of people accessing the
internet from their mobile devices, shaving every second possible off the loading
time of your site will ensure that visitors do not get impatient and leave.
6. Limited ways to contact - Believe it or not, I've actually come across commercial
web sites that have absolutely no way to contact anyone associated with the site.
Unless you hope your web site visitor's reaction to the online representation of your
business to be a string of profanity, I wouldn't suggest taking this route. In fact, I've
always urged clients to offer as many ways as possible to contact them on their web
sites. Phone, fax, e-mail, contact form, mailing address, etc.
Everyone has their own preferred method of contact. A lot of my clients prefer
talking on the phone and probably wouldn't be my clients if all I offered as a contact
method was e-mail. Me, I hate talking on the phone and filling out forms. If you
don't offer a link to your e-mail address on your site, you probably won't hear from
me. But what about spam, you say? Well, you'll just have to decide for yourself
what's worse, losing potential paying customers or getting more spam.
7. Long Pages/Entire Site in One Page - When loading a site, finding a page that
seems to go on forever can seem daunting. The same amount of information,
organized into several pages will seem a lot less scary to your visitors. Labeled
pages and sections will lead your visitor to exactly the information they're looking
for as opposed to making them search lines and lines of text to find it. Well
organized content on several pages is also something that pleases the search
engines.
8. No Link Exchange Policy - A lot of web sites out there don't exchange links as a
rule. This will not only stunt the growth of your link popularity, but potential traffic
that could come directly from those links would be lost. You don't have to exchange
links with every interested site, but turning them all away is a dangerous practice.
9. Cross-Browser Compatibility Check - Always, always, always check what your
web site looks like and how well it functions on other browsers. Do this whenever
you update, make new pages, or new versions of browsers come out. I've seen some
pretty funky stuff around the web that's been caused by non-compatibility. Title
images on the bottom of the page, invisible links, missing images, even some sites
that cause browsers to crash.
Here are some of the more popular browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)
Netscape
Opera
Mozilla
Apple Safari
Download a copy of each of these and check your site! I realize most of you use
Windows and can't check your site on Safari, so find a friend who has a Mac. Mac
users are growing in numbers and can be some of your web site's visitors. Make
sure what they see is what you want them to.
10. Free Web Space/No Domain Name - This one is all about professionalism. To
avoid having your business seem about as serious as little Sally's lemonade stand
down the street, don't host it on free web space like Geocities, Angelfire, etc. Get
your own domain name. It costs an average of $30/year and you can find good
hosting for $10/month, sometimes less. If you can't afford that, I suggest you turn
off your computer and sell it for food. Free hosting is straight cheese, and your
visitors will get the feeling you're not taking your business seriously.
So, there you have it. The top 10 most ludicrous things you can do with your web
site. I've heard some web site owners argue that their site visitors have
complimented their videos, java apps, music, etc. Just keep in mind, the visitors who
don't like this stuff leave and you probably won't hear from them.
The goal of your commercial web site should be to soak up every last potential
paying customer from the web. Any of these 10 points can turn paying customers
away. Respect your visitors' time, try to make their experience on your site as quick
and full of information as possible. Be organized and professional and let your
audience see that you know what you're doing.
Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, an Internet Marketing and SEO
company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and
marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the
Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/
resources/