10 Reasons Not to Use Your Own Site?

One of the most common mistakes I run into are websites that are non-functional to a disgusting degree.  I mean the type of malfunction that just p*sses the surfer off and they desert.  All your hard marketing work down the drain.  Let's talk about some common mistakes

1. Wildcards not enabled on your server.  WWW.yourdomain will resolve but http://yourdomain gets an error page .  Properly set up the http://should forward to your main page.  If not then at least sign up for Google analytics which will allow you to set the primary domain as either http or www and prevent duplicate content penalties.  More importantly some 30-40% of your traffic will arrive via the http by just typing it in and you'll lose that traffic to a 404 error page.  Try both addresses to get to your site and if both work make sure they are set up properly for indexing.  If you are not familiar with this aspect of servers talk to your webhost or SEO expert for more information and help.
2. Broken links…. it's very frustrating especially for picture links that would add to the surfers impression of your site.  Surveys have shown 46% of sufers make their buying decision based on the look of your site.
3. Site dead ends.  Surfers can get into areas they can only get out of by backing up because they aren't adequately linked to the home page or other relevant areas.  Easier to hit the close button!
4. Non functioning forms that give error pages or worse yet ask for useless information.  I've run into several in the last few days.  One has the email and password linked to the wrong areas of the submission form.  The password has to go in the email box and the email has to go into the password box.  How frustrating.  I wonder how many surfers have abandoned this site because they didn't figure that out.  They are a major affiliate site BTW.  Another has made a comment box in a 2 page submission form MANDATORY with a 25 character limit.  You have to ask why??  Are they expecting you to write war and peace in 25 letters??  Stupid!
5. Speaking of stupid, bringing these issues to the attention of the site owner or support and coming back weeks later to the same errors.  Unbelievable.  When a surfer takes the time to send you an error report you risk seeing your reputation take a real hit when he/she realizes you ignored them and they start posting about it in forums.
6. Speaking of support one of the tricks I learned early was sending an email to the support staff of any site I was looking at dealing with.  I ask some innocent question just to see if they respond and if it takes more than two business days.  If they ignore you or take more than two business days write them off.  Anytime I've broken that rule I've regretted it.  Look after your support emails.
7. Speaking further about support one of my real issues with sites is getting back ignorant support emails.  You know the type.  I spend an hour composing and describing the problem and I get a response that indicates no one read the email.  How insulting.
8. Content not properly contained.  This can happen where the content is not adequately formatted as to font sizes and when a surfer hits the page the text bleeds out the box frequently wrecking the graphics of the page.
9. Support, contact us or privacy policy pages are missing or ambigous.  If you give the appearance of something to hide surfers will assume the worst and go elsewhere.
10. Really really bad graphics or sucky things like rainbows or fairies flying or intolerable music that blasts out unexpectedly while you hunt for a button to shut it off.  It's easier to hit the back button or close the page.

Spend some time and try your own site out.  Don't assume everything works properly.  Use your forms, sign up for any registration processes, click on all links and look for dead areas.  Try different browsers and different browser font size options.  I was amazed recently to surf one of my sites in Firefox and discovered the navigation box disappeared on the main page.  It turned out a simple html mistake that Internet Explorer could handle, threw Firefox for a loop.  Firefox may not be the biggest browser on the market but it accounts for 2-3% of the traffic and that meant 2-3% of the surfers couldn't get past the main page.