Tiger Team Solutions can help your company capitalize on web site benefits that will keep you ahead of your competition.
1. More Affordable Than Print, Radio and TV Ads
Websites are the most affordable form of advertising available. Space is virtually unlimited and the information is always available.
2. Open the Communication Gateways
Open the lines of communication. People want to contact you hassle free. Give them the opportunity to ask questions and to return feedback.
3. Build Customer Relationships
Online forms and surveys are effective ways of gathering valuable information to improve the way you do business.
4. Open 24/7
Online information is available around the clock.
5. Save Money! Advertise In Small Places
Get more bang for your buck. People like classified ads because they are inexpensive. When you only have three lines, there’s not much room to grab attention.
6. Answer Questions Before They’re Asked
Do you repeate the same answers over and over? Have frequently asked questions and detailed answers posted on your site.
7. Exposure to Larger Markets
Reach customers around the world. The internet user\'s base is growing by roughly 50,000 people per day.
8. The Competitive Edge
A Tiger Team website will give you the edge to stay ahead of the competition.
9. Provides a Professional Business Image
Most people depend on the internet to find out about companies before they do business with them. Websites give a sense of professionalism.
10. Provide Directions And Location Information
Customers can get detailed driving directions, they can see how to get to your location with a map, and they can print it and take it with them.
Your website is an online business card. It directly reflects on your business. In many areas of our lives we say appearance is not important. However, when it comes to developing a website, appearance is everything. If your site does not look professional and easy to navigate, your business will be viewed as mediocre or just a small mom and pop setup that may not provide all the products/services needed. At the other extreme, your website might be so over the top that pages load slowly or are too complicated to navigate.
So which problem is worse, having a rudimentary or over complicated site? It may seem easy and most would answer rudimentary. But think about the problems users will have with each site. As a whole, both sites are equally problematic and business owners should address those issues before traffic to their site dramatically decreases. What are the top website design mistakes made today?
After looking through many websites the following are the most frequent mistakes made by businesses:
Slow Load Time: Nothing is worse than trying to open a website and waiting for it to load. Many times, business owners feel they need glitzy graphics and animated images to attract customers. However, this greatly slows load times and actually annoys users especially if they have a dial-up connection.
Tip: Keep load heavy items like video and flash animations to a minimum. They make a site slow loading and often appear cheesy and unprofessional.
Spelling/Grammar: How many times have you read through a website and caught spelling, or worse yet, grammar mistakes? With the invention of spell and grammar check this should never happen. When I find these mistakes, even on large corporate websites I am put off by their oversight as are most users. When I find these errors I also wonder what other mistakes this company will make and am leery of doing business with them.
Tip: Always check spelling and grammar. I suggest using Microsoft Word and then having another person proof your work. The more people that proof your work the less chance you have of errors making it live on you site.
No Contact Information: I am always surprised at the number of businesses that make it impossible to find their contact information. They either don’t include it on their site or hide it in an obscure page. If a potential customer can’t contact you then how can they buy your products or services?
Tip: Always put contact information on your homepage. I would suggest putting it at the top and bottom of the page so it is visible for all users.
Complicated Navigation: How frustrating is it to wonder around a website looking for information but never finding it. Many websites have difficult if not impossible navigation. There are too many options, sub options, and links that you are not sure where they will go. If I can’t find what I’m looking for in a couple of seconds I go on to the next site.
Tip: Keep navigation simple. Don’t load your page with too many links. Keep your navigation bar to the left of the page and don’t overload users with too many options.
Broken Links/Graphics: One of the most unprofessional mistakes I see are websites with broken links and graphics. It makes the site look like it is never updated or visited by the owner. Imagine if you are trying to buy a product, but the picture of it doesn’t work. Would you buy from that company? I know I wouldn’t.
Tip: Go in each week and check your website for broken links and graphics. This will make your site look maintained and will not cost you any potential sales.
After reading these tips take some time to review your website. Remember the simple site will ultimately make the sales.
You made up your mind and then jumped. You contracted a website designer to help you get your message to the world. The feat is impressive.
Now make sure that message is what you intended it to be. Because you really only get one chance for that all-too-important first impression, make your time count.
Research indicates that your time is truly limited to less than two minutes to get your message across in the appropriate manner to snag a good first impression.
Your Website is being judged at all times.
Your audience will judge your site in those first fateful seconds and judge your performance – is it professional, appropriate and effective – and quickly make up their minds if you’re going to get their business.
The fact is a site can likely lose about thirty-three percent of its potential customers by inadequate design. Take a good, long look at your current site. Does it look professional? Would you use the services or buy the goods for your family or yourself? Does it seem harmonious? Is the site intuitive to navigate?
Does the site have attractive graphics with good colors? Is the formatting, font color, font size consistent on all the site’s pages? Or does your site commit design mistakes that speak amateur as soon as it loads? Does your site seem a little bit off, but you can’t quite figure out why?
There are many common and easy to look over mistakes website owners make than can cause their visitors to leave early, or leave frustrated. Be sure to avoid these common traps.
People are not Dumb
Don’t scatter “Under Construction” signs all over your site. This device is redundant and looks very unprofessional. If your site is not completely developed and published, people should not have the domain, or access. You wouldn’t let people in your new restaurant just to tell them they will have to come back later. Professionals know that timing the launch of your up and running website is key to getting your customers taken care of, getting them happy and insuring they will return. I wouldn’t go back to a closed restaurant – and I am surely not returning to a “coming soon” site.
Have much patience. Wait until the site is really ready. Then advertise, after you go live.
It will help you to avoid the loss of customers who are shy of the ‘under construction’ stigma.
Some site owners put vivid primary colored counters on every page. People are not fooled by counters.
The general public knows that the counters can be easily set to whatever numbers the owner wants. If you don't want to start your counter at zero, you can easily start it with hundreds of thousands of ‘visits’. Bold counter numbers raises a red flag for many visitors and may repel them faster than it attracts.
You will need more substantial traffic tracking tools if you want to convert visitors to customers effectively. Don’t use the counter. Its data is one dimensional and not likely to be accurate.
Many websites do not use copyright statements because they don’t realize that their site is valuable data that needs protection also.
Protect your web design
Some uninformed site owners don't know that their copyright is effective the moment their creative work is set in a fixed form, so they don’t know to put their stamp of ownership on all their work. Your work is your property, claim it. Post your copyright information at the bottom of every page.
First impressions are especially important on the web; today’s surfers won’t wait around for user-friendly, good design. Use some of these tips to think about your site and will likely understand how to stop turning your visitors away at the door.
Get inside your audience’s head, figure out what they want and don’t want. And then make sure your site is built around those likes and dislikes. Use your first few seconds to impress your visitors with powerful yet simple design that conveys your message succinctly.
