I recently spent a little time surfing web looking at general web marketing and promotion sites and was somewhat surprised at how many were making what I consider, basic design mistakes. How many of following apply to YOUR site?Difficult to see from top half of page (ie, that part that first comes into view in my browser window) exactly what it is that site is meant to be promoting.
- if it is not clear from what can be seen in browser window average visitor will move on.
- some sites were so full of banners, news headlines and various other links that it was impossible to know what they were offering. Some were in fact offering marketing services, some provision of news services, while others were even offering web design services - no thank you!
At top of your home page should be a headline/paragraph which answers visitors most important question "What's in it for me?" What is this site offering that will improve my business? Make my life easier? Earn me some money? Provide answer to my question?
Loads slowly - if visitors have to wait too long for site to download, chances are that they will close page and move on. If you must have lots of graphics on your site, use a gif optimisation tool.
Flash presentations - they are great if you are doing an offline presentation to a captive audience, or if your visitors are coming to your site for a specific reason - but if you are hoping to catch casual visitor, don't bother - or at least offer them opportunity to be able to skip presentation.