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Warning - Your Website May Be Killing Your Business!
By Bill Daugherty
©2004 All Rights Reserved
How can your website kill your business?
It may contain hidden flaws and glitches that prevents a lot of visitors from reaching your site, or drives them away once they arrive. The scariest part is you probably don't even know your site has a problem.
How can you tell if your website has any of these problems? Take a few minutes and check your site in these common problem areas. It can mean the difference between your success and failure on the Web.
Browser Compatibility
Do you know that your site may not be compatible with some browsers. Not all browsers support all website designs.
A site that loads great in an Internet Explorer browser, may not load, or at least not load properly in say, a Netscape or AOL browser. If your site has this problem, then you are losing those visitors that are using browsers unfriendly to your site's design.
You can check your browser's compatibility by installing different browsers on your computer and see just how your website design is treated by the various brands. You may require some professional help with this.
Slow Loading Site
Nothing drives a visitor away faster than having to wait around for a web page to load. Most experts will tell you that 8 seconds is the maximum load time for your pages, and anything slower needs some attention. But, this benchmark doesn't take into account the visitor's modem speed. You need to have your site checked using various speed modems.
If your site loads too slow, take a look at your graphics. Those "fat" graphics are the most common culprit. The cure may be to compress your GIF and JPEG graphic images or replace some graphic links with text links.
This is a very serious problem. If your site is slow to load, many visitors will leave before they ever see what you have to offer.
User Friendliness
Visitors may find your site unfriendly if they encounter broken links or find it difficult to navigate around your site.
Broken links result when you have an error in your code or when the page you are linked to is offline.
An error in the link code is indicated when you click on the link and nothing happens. It's just like clicking on non-link sections of your page. This is easy to fix. Just go into your page's code, locate and correct the problem.
If you click on one of your links and get a 404 error message, this means the page you are linked to is offline. This may be temporary due to a problem with the page's server, or it may be permanent due to the site being moved to another URL or perhaps the site is no longer online.
If the site is no longer at the URL you are linked to, remove the link. Broken links are a real turnoff for most surfers.
Difficulty in navigating around a site is all too common with sites that have a lot of links and/or a lot of pages. Have a friend or some other third party check your site for this problem. If they feel your site is difficult to navigate, then ask them for suggestions for improvements.
Search Engine Readiness
Over 85% of Web surfers use search engines to get what they need and over 90% of the search engine traffic to most websites comes from 8 to 10 major search engines. So, if you are not listed on one or more of the major engines, you are missing out on a tremendous amount of traffic.
All search engines are different and register sites in various ways. The best way to optimize for all the engines is to follow some basic, universal guidelines. Here are some general tips that will greatly enhance your site registration results.
Use relevant <TITLE> tag content
Use <META> tags for your site's keywords and description. Include keywords and key phrases in your body text and keep it concise.
Use text links in addition to image links. Register multiple pages of your Website. Re-register your site! Regularly, every 5 - 6 weeks.
Keep your home page design simple, fast to load and easy to navigate.
Invest in your own domain name.
And be patient. It takes some of the engines 6 to 8 weeks to list a site. Take a little time and check your website for these little flaws and glitches that can cost you big time in lost visitors and lost revenues. If you don't have the expertise to get the job done, then consult with someone with the knowledge to help you. This is too important to simply ignore.
BILL DAUGHERTY
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Visit Bill's latest project at: http://www.instantez.com/wdindex.html
You can contact Bill at: bill@epower.zzn.com


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