I was doing research for a client. In the span of less than a half hour, I visited three sites. And in that span of time, I encountered some of the biggest site-design mistakes on the web. By “big,” I mean that these mistakes are costing these businesses customers. The right prospects might be visiting their sites right under their noses. And there’s nothing they can do to turn them into customers. They probably don’t even realize that these visitors are even there. And the thing is, these errors are not even what we usually think of as part of “web design.” But getting them right is absolutely necessary to having a website that works.

These mistakes really are that common. Take a survey of websites, especially websites for small businesses, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find even one that doesn’t make these mistakes. I used to make them, too, over and over again. Because I didn’t know what I was missing out on.

The root of the problem is that we small business owners tend to think of “web design” as being the same as “graphic design.” But it’s not. Graphic design is only a tiny part of what makes a website design work or not. Still, this is where we spend the most money. But on the web, site design means much more. In fact, of the five errors I saw in that half hour, not one of them has anything to do with graphic design. Yet all of them were missed opportunities. Because they hindered me (and other visitors) from becoming anything more than a casual visitor.

1. They don’t carry through on the promises made in their ads.

My story begins with some research for one of my clients. I wanted to find alternative channels through which to market to international college students. We were looking specifically for students attending a few specific Boston-area colleges. I did a Google search for “international student marketing.” On the right side of the page, I saw an ad that seemed interesting:

Reach College Students
With Powerful Peer 2 Peer Campaigns
Leaders in college Word of Mouth
www.repnation.com

I clicked on the ad and found myself at RepNation’s front page… Which has absolutely nothing to do with college students. Instead, it says, “Welcome to RepNation, the worlds first consumer powered media network. Easily launch marketing campaigns communicated through personal interactions. Brand ambassadors, word-of-mouth, party networks, strategic sampling, targeted research. Powerful, proven results. Plug into the network. RepNation Clients: Microsoft, MTV, jetBlue Airways, Victoria’s Secret.”

Now that’s mildly interesting, though it also makes me cautious. (You have to be careful paying for word-of-mouth.) But it has nothing to do with reaching college students, which is what I was looking for and which their ad promised me.

Remember that your web ad makes an implicit promise as to what a web surfer will find when he clicks on it. And your landing page—whether it’s your site home page or another page on your site. Your landing page needs to fulfill that promise.

2. They play like a Superbowl ad, not a Jordan’s Furniture ad.

So I then set upon the task— (Another symptom of the site not fulfilling its promise: Making me work.) I set upon the task of figuring out how RepNation could help me reach college students. The main text was actually part of a way kewl Flash animation. And it’s a good thing I’m a fast reader. So I determined that it didn’t tell me anything I really wanted to know.

Then I scanned the rest of the home page. I read across the top: “Home, About, Learn More, Services, The Good Word, Agency Partners, Plug-In, Contact Us, Login, Be a Rep.” And down the side of the page I saw, “Services: Brand Ambassador Networks, Word-of-Mouth Influencer Networks, Word-of-Mouth Sampling Networks, Party Networks, RepMedia, Research.” These were all links to other pages. But which one did I want to click on?

Okay. Repeat after me: “No one cares what you do.” Repeat after me: “Everyone only cares what’s in it for him.” This is the difference between a Superbowl ad and a Jordan’s Furniture ad. If you’re not from around Boston, you may not have seen the Jordan’s Furniture ads. But if you’ve spent any time in this area, you surely do remember them. Like Superbowl ads, Jordan’s Furniture ads are kewl and artsy and even sometimes flashy. But Jordan’s Furniture is all about the customer. Even at their website— Yes, they use Flash, but you don’t even notice it. Instead, what’s the first thing you see? A picture of a bedroom, and “The Whole Shebang! Rooms ready to go. It’s all done for you.” Not once in that bit did they say anything about their business. They did use the word “you,” however, speaking directly to the human being on the other end of the browser.

But that was not the situation that faced me at RepNation. Which link to choose? Hmm. I tried the “Plug-In” link first, but that just showed me a contact form more detailed than the “Contact Us” link did. Okay… Hmm. I then tried some of the other links. And then I gave up. The only reason I stuck at it for so long, in fact, was so that I could write this blog post.

Most visitors to this site would have given up long before I did. You have basically 8 seconds after a visitor arrives at your site to convince him to stay. If your landing page does not speak directly to him, he’ll go look elsewhere.

So remember, your web site is not about you. It’s about your customer.

3. They try to impress with big numbers, rather than impressing me with a specific solution to my exact problem.

A variant of this is the claim that they’ve been in business for 731 years (or whatever). Get this straight: I don’t care how kewl you are. All I want is at this point is how to solve my problem. (The fact that solving my problem involves buying something from you is just a great side-benefit for you.)

So I left RepNation’s site (still not knowing exactly what they do or why I really should care). Then I clicked on Alloy Marketing’s ad. Their ad actually dropped me—wonder of wonders—on the “college” page of their site! No way kewl Flash animations. But I immediately saw that I was at the right place. I was looking for ways to market to international students attending specific local colleges. But instead of telling me how to do this, or even if I could do it, the copy tried to impress me with big numbers. For example, from their page about online advertising: “Reach over 800,00 [sic] unique college students… over 90 million monthly page views… 4.4 million registered users on 4,000 campuses… 1.4 million unique visitors each month…” and so forth.

Now, they did mention, “Well-defined user groups allows for very efficient, highly targeted messaging.” Okay… Tell me more about that! There were not even any links to more information. I bookmarked the site, but I’m not too excited about having to come back.

It’s better to make one strong offer to a small, specific market than to make a thousand weak offers to the whole world. Be specific about addressing the exact need your web visitor has. This will engage him and capture his attention. Big numbers won’t.

4. They don’t make a compelling offer or have a call to action.

On to the next site: On-Campus Advertising. They’re all about advertising to college students on-campus. The site has one Flash slide-show animation, which never went away and became distracting. And unfortunately, the landing page copy was all about them. But one thing stuck out at me: A link to “Boston/New England.” Hey! That’s me! Click. The follow-up page told me specifically what they offer, “transit adverting in Boston, Massachusetts via the Longwood Shuttle… exposure to Boston’s Longwood Medical Area, Kenmore Square, Chestnut Hill and Cambridge.” Then the copy invited me to contact a specific person for more info. Yes, they actually did something right!

The other sites did not do this! If I were a potential customer, they didn’t make me an offer. And they didn’t tell me what to do to take advantage of that offer. This is one of the most common mistakes, and the easiest to fix. Many small business owners writing their own copy think what I myself used to. They think that if someone is interested in their product or service, he’ll figure out what to do next. And they don’t want to be pushy.

The truth is that people generally will not know what’s the next step to take. But if you make them a compelling offer, and if they are interested in your offer, they’ll want to know, step-by-step, how to take advantage of it. You can’t be pushy by telling them.

So always make a specific, compelling offer. And always include a clear call to action.

5. They try to turn every visitor into a lead, rather than trying to find the right leads.

Here again, On-Campus Advertising did the job right. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in their offer right now. That’s okay. I’m not going to waste my time or theirs trying to get information about a deal that isn’t what I want.

And that’s the point. If I’m not a potential customer, you don’t want me to pick up the phone and call. But if I were, I would know exactly what to do. The only thing they could have done better is to impart a sense of urgency, for example, by referring to the college sales cycle. You want to book your ad to appear before all the kids go away for spring break, or go home for the summer.

From what I saw, the other sites didn’t do this. Because they weren’t specific enough. By being specific, you will turn off some of your visitors. Those visitors will realize that you are not for them. And that’s okay. Because it’s better for everyone if you find out up front that you and they are a poor match for each other.

The Most Important Part of Your Web Design

None of the strengths of any of these sites had to do with their graphic designs. In fact, the most creative elements of the site graphics just got in the way. The one aspect that made the most impact was the web copy.

Now, that’s interesting. Because we tend to spend lots of money on a pro to do graphic design. And then we provide do-it-yourself web copy. I know of one small businessman, a consulting professional, who spent $10,000 on his website. And then he wrote all his own copy for it.

Here’s my point: If you’re going to dump ten thousand dollars into your website, spend at least 9 of them on a professional copywriter.

If you only have a thousand to spend, then hire a college intern for $50 to install a CMS on a $10 hosting account and show you how to use it. Take whatever’s left, and hire a pro to write sales copy for you.

-TimK

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