Surfing the Internet can be a frustrating experience for me. I spend a lot of time “surfing” the Internet and I consistently come across small business websites that are making the same mistakes over and over and over again and I’ve decided it’s time to stop these mistakes in their tracks. I’m going to share with you the common mistakes that I see small business websites making and tips/tricks on how you can avoid making these mistakes yourself.

So without further ado, here they are.

Mistake #1. Choosing a domain name that doesn’t have a keyword that is niche specific and has a high search volume.

While this is the recommended course of action for a domain name and it is important to build a brand for yourself online, I sometimes question whether or not you should do it with your domain name.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. For instance, you may have a local business called “Al’s Roofing”, which is an actual business in Edmonton. No one online is going to search specifically for “Al’s Roofing”. They will, however, search for “Edmonton Roofing”. Online users will usually search for “local area” + “The business type”. Examples of this include “Atlanta Roofer” “Chicago Plumber”.

Now before you go and try to register the domain name www.edmontonroofing.com or .ca or .net you can stop right there as they are all taken. Almost every general search term is already taken no matter where you are located in the world. However, you may wish to double check this but it is usually the case no matter where you live. This is because people have been harvesting domain names since the web began and every single word from “eyes” “ears” “mouth” and “Business” has already been registered.

Luckily, there is hope for your online websites. Since “Edmonton Roofing” is taken, try adding a suffix to the end of the keyword that you want to register. So for instance, “Edmonton roofing pro” “Edmonton roofing pros” “Edmonton roofing center” “Edmonton roofing experts” “Edmonton roofing hub” “Edmonton roofing blog”, etc. If all of the names with a suffix are taken try add the word “the” to the front of the domain.

Even if you already have a branded domain name it will be useful to have a non-branded domain name like this to use for marketing purposes and this leads me to the second mistake I see being made with websites.

Mistake #2 – Not offering a lead generating report

Right about now you are probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about, and if you are then you are probably guilty of committing this number two mistake.

A lead generating report is a 14 page report that is titled something like “The 7 Crucial Things You Must Know Before Hiring an Edmonton Roofing Company” (or some niche specific title). This is a report that is packed full of useful information that would be helpful to prospects who are looking for the products and services that you provide. In this report you are not only looking to hard sell your services but you are also providing information with a call to action. This call of action is usually something along the lines of calling you for a free estimate. With all this set up it creates warm qualified leads to sell to when they do call you and it makes it easier for you to sell your product or services.

Now I know what you’re thinking, how am I as a small business owner who is already up to my neck with things to do, going to find the time to write a free report! I’m a writer, not an author!!”  Well, calm down and I’ll explain to you how you can do this.

You probably know your business better than anyone else and you may have sales people working for you. And if they are good sales people and they probably have a killer sales presentation that they use with every prospect (at least they should).  So you can do two things.  Have someone interview you and your sales person about the standard questions that someone would ask, say the 7 most frequently asked questions and record it.  You can either use a digital recorder or if you have a Skype account use Skype and a plugin called Pamela Recorder, there’s a free months trial you can use. You can then offer the exact recording as a free lead generating report or have it transcribed by the folks over at Speech Pad (by the way you can also use their services to record and transcribe your call).  Once you have the audio transcribed you can then have the report saved as a pdf document and upload it to your site for downloading.  You will need something called an Email Service Provider, such as Get Response, to do this or else  you’re going to have a manually send out all of the reports each time someone requests it, which will be a real pain in the buttocks.

Mistake #3. Building Your Entire Website with Flash

Flash is a great tool, but if you use it for 100% of your Web content and don’t have any text alternatives you risk losing readers. There are many usability issues with Flash ranging from user dislike to the most severe one being that it isn’t accessible.

Many search engines don’t index Flash content well, which means that you will spend a lot of money on a site that you will not be able to rank on the first page of Google.  I feel sorry for the local Dentist whom I met who spent $6000 on his 100% flash built website and doesn’t want to convert to something like WordPress because of the amount of money that he already spent (however he is going to have to keep spending money on Google Adwords in order to keep his website at the top of the search engine results page).

That being said, like Apple and Steve Jobs, a lot of web surfers simply don’t like Flash sites as they have bugs such as the back buttons not working, which is a common problem with Flash websites. Many people just don’t like Flash and will click away the minute they see it.

Mistake #4.  Using Flash Splash Pages

Even if you don’t want all your content in Flash, many designers will create a splash page in Flash to show off their skills or provide some animation. The problem is that they are often boring or too commercial for most customers. People come to websites because they want information and having to wait through even a 30 second Flash animation can seem like they are waiting too long. Most users simply click the back button and go off to visit someone else’s site, likely that of your competitor.

Splash pages can also be bad for your on page search engine optimization as they don’t index well at all. The SEO Moz Blog has a great article on this topic as to why a splash page will hurt your SEO and why you shouldn’t use one.

Mistake #5. Making Your Contact Information Hard to Find

You’d be surprised how many websites I visit that I cannot find simple information like a phone number, email address or contact form. I understand if you don’t want to put your email address on your website and decide to use a contact form. In fact, I highly encourage you to do this as it will stop spam robots from harvesting your email address and sending you junk. However, if you’re going to “hide” your email address or not display an easily found contact form, I’ll bet my Uncle Ed’s silver dollar that you are losing business.  Have your web designer install a Contact form in the main menu navigation and also include your address, phone number, postal information and a Google Map Listing displaying where you are located and even an option to get directions wouldn’t hurt either.

There are some other helpful things you can do to make your information easier to find. You could display it on the front of your website in your header like I have done with these websites www.edmontonroofingpros.com and www.edmontondentalcare.ca.  9 times out of 10 a web surfer looking for your local business online is wanting to call you to either make an appointment or get directions and having all that information present at the top is helpful and good for business.

You should also include a toll free 1-800 number for visitors to call to get their free report and have it play the audio version of the report that you created. Using toll free hotlines is a proven successful marketing method.

Mistake #6.  Using Poor Quality Graphics

More than likely you’ve heard the phrase; “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” and this cannot be any truer than when it comes to your website.  I have seen a lot of ugly websites and the first thing I do as soon as I land on an ugly website is click the back button.  I would bet my Aunt Betsy’s Gold Coin that I’m not alone either.

This is the message that you are conveying to your visitors by implementing cheap graphics and poor design – “We don’t care about our business and we cut corners with our products”. Should you do this you can bet you are losing revenue to your competitors who have invested the money in a great looking website.  You may think that a great Graphic artist will cost you a lot of money but poor graphics will actually cost you even more in profits.

Mistake #7.  Not using Direct Response Copy in Your Website

Perhaps you’ve never heard of direct response copy writing. However, if you’ve heard of the Blue Blocker Sunglasses, (you know the ones in the TV commercials 15 years ago that had everyone wanting a pair) then you’ve probably seen Joseph Sugarman in those commercial pitching his famous sunglasses. Joseph Sugerman is, in my opinion, one of the foremost experts and pioneers of using direct response marketing to sell products and services.

Direct response marketing is a gift and a skill but there are some fundamentals that should be included in the copy on all websites and these are:

• Develop a Strong Attention Getting Headline
• Make a List of all of your products features and benefits
• Consider using either of these two formula’s; AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) and PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution).

For more on the fundamentals of how to write great copy check out Brian Clarks Copy Writing 101 course

Mistake #8.  Not Building Your Website With SEO in Mind

I know I run the risk of sounding like a cliché but you’ve more than likely heard the saying “if you build it..they will come”. However this is not the case with websites.  Web design should start with search engine marketing research. Search engine marketing research includes a good design company or consultant that will enquire and research what your target market is online and how you can best reach them.

This brings us back to our first point in choosing a keyword rich domain name.  You see you want to build a website based on keywords that users are already typing into Google, Bing and other search engines. These keywords you want to “rank in”, that is have your website showing up on the front page of Google.  This involves something called on page optimization. Page optimization is like building a house, you want to ensure that everything is placed properly. While you don’t want to stuff your website with keywords, you do want to have enough of them in your site so the search engines and your readers find your site relevant.

Mistake #9.  Not Using a Squeeze/Landing Page

Perhaps you’re new to squeeze pages but essentially they are designed with one purpose in mind -  to “squeeze” information out of visitors.  You do this by offering something such as a free report or some other relevant goodie that your target market would want and then displaying a spot for users to enter their name and email address. Some marketers may suggest asking for a phone number as well but the less information you ask for the better conversion ratio you will see.

You’re probably wondering how a squeeze page is different from any other page on your site. An effective squeeze page will have all navigation removed from it so that the user cannot do anything but enter their name and email address.  I’ve got one on www.customfanpagedesignpros.com you can look at to see an example of.  (Oh and you get your Free Report on “How to Use Facebook to Market Your Local Business”)

These are just 9 web design sins that will kill your small business and I could probably write 10 more as entire books have been written on the subject.  However, if you remember these 9 tips when having your next website designed or redesigned you will stand taller than your competition and be on your way to increasing your profits by generating more leads from your website.