Why websites Fail

A while back I had posted this article on my other blog. It had great feedback so I thought that I would just re-post it here. So here it is.

Why Websites Fail…

If you are planning on building a new website, you are obviously hoping for some type of success. Of course, success can mean any number of things, and each website’s success should be determined by the needs and desires of its owners and creators.

Some websites exist strictly to provide information to visitors. Others aim to sell products. Some exist solely to provide information about the services of a business. As you can see, there is no one equation for success online, but there are a number of common causes for failure with a website. Here is a look at several possible things that can keep you from achieving anything significant with a website.

1. Lack of a Purpose:

Whether your website represents your business, or whether your business is a website, it needs a purpose. Websites that represent brick and mortar business will typically exist to support and aid the business in meeting its objectives, and hopefully that business already has a clearly defined purpose.

Whatever the situation may be, a website must have a clear purpose for which it exists. A website with no direction will go nowhere. If you hope to build a successful Internet presence, be sure to dedicate adequate time to plan and define what you want from your website.

2. No Selling Point:

Webmasters can create a website, but without properly thinking of what is going to drive their site to success, they go ahead and build it without proper planning. The selling point I refer to is simply this:

What can my website provide that other websites cannot?

To bring in users or clients, you must provide a selling point to them that can beat out your competitors. If you provide a service, you will need something that is unique and original that other competitors don’t have to offer. If you provide content, you must provide content that is of better quality or provides a better concentration of content that your competitors cannot compete with. Without providing a selling point, viewers will not find any reason to stay at your website as it is just another site on the world wide web.

3. Lack of Focus on the User:

In order to achieve success, however it may be measured, a website and its creators must maintain focus on the users of the website. Without satisfied users, no website will be successful. Sometimes it is easy to lose focus on those who will be visiting a website. It may be easier or more fun to build the site how you like it or how you want it to be, but the users opinions are much more important.

Any website that does a great job of meeting the needs of users will be well on its way to success. At every stage of the website development process, user needs and wants should be of primary concern.

4. Poor Marketing Strategy:

Regardless of how great your website is, people need to find it in order for it to be successful. A marketing strategy may involve spending thousands or even millions of dollars in advertising, or it could include spending only a few dollars on targeted pay-per-click ads. A marketing strategy could also include optimization for social media and/or search engines.

There is really no limit to what you can do to market a website, but you do need to have a strategy that will help you to get the right people to visit the site. A great website with no marketing strategy is taking a huge chance that people will somehow find the site.

5. Over complication:

Webmasters often times over complicate their website by providing too many links and too much text for their viewers to look at. The best websites on the net are those that take something that may be complicated, but present it in such a way that appears simple to its viewers. Providing too much text on a web site’s front page, complex layout designs, and too many links are prime examples of over complication. People like things cut and to the point. They don’t want to have to decipher messages behind paragraphs and paragraphs of text.

6. Lack of Communication, Human Interaction:

Alright, so you’ve coded your website and put it on the Internet. You’re all done right? Wrong. Successful websites need to constantly be aware of their clients and viewers. How would you like it if you visited a website and had some issues with certain parts of their website? Wouldn’t you like to give some feedback? Providing your clients and viewers with an easy way for them to give you feedback is showing that you actually care about what they have to say.

However, that is just the first step. Responding to feedback is necessary as well. There are many solutions to providing this kind of easy-communication, quick-response situation. One solution would simply be to provide an email form on your site for clients/users to give feedback, remembering to check your email and attempting to respond to each question personally.

Remember, people like to know that there is indeed a person behind the website, not a greedy corporation or some machine doing all the work.

7. Lack of effort:

A lack of effort is another big reason most websites fail. Some people simply just lack the effort to want to build their website business. Many build their website and think they will make tons of money with little or no effort on their part.

This trait has no place in any business for that matter and It really doesn’t work too well in the job market either.

8. No Plan:

Not having a good sturdy business plan leaves you with a good plan to fail. Your business plan is what keeps you going in the direction that you need to be going. With out it, as far as I am concerned, you will just be spinning your wheels. Not really knowing in which direction you are headed.

9. Poor Design:

The design and attractiveness of a website is also important to success. Most visitors will base their first impression of the site at least partially on looks and appearance. Although design is important, different websites can be successful with different design strategies. Not every successful website needs to have a fancy design that is full of exciting features. A clean, attractive minimal design will be effective for many websites.

The design should never take priority over usability. If a particular design interferes with visitors being able to access and use the site, it is not an effective design. Designing for user expectations is more important than trying to create the most impressive looking website.

10. No Call to Action

Whether the goal of a website is to sell products, gain subscribers or to provide information about the services of a business, a call to action for visitors is needed. Many websites are not successful because they simply do not encourage or instruct visitors to do what they want them to do. In order to have an effective call to action, you must first know precisely what it is that you want your visitors to do after arriving at your website. Knowing what you want from them, you can now build the website to lead them to that action.

11. Lack of commitment:

Now the biggest reason, In my opinion, is the lack of commitment. Many website owners get excited for the launch of a new website with the potential that exists. But over time that interest and commitment often fades. Without commitment to success, no website will go very far.

This doesn’t only apply to an individual website owner trying to make money online. This also applies to large businesses that simply don’t give their website the attention or priority that it deserves. A website can be an invaluable asset to a business, or it can produce next to nothing if there is no commitment by the business to make it something special.

Conclusion:

So there you have it, several reasons why websites fail and some explanation as to why and what to do about it.

As you can see it is not really difficult to turn these reasons for failure, into reasons that will help you build a good profitable business.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this report and have gained a few insights as to how to properly build your website!

Sincerely,

Mark Gottwald

P.S.- If you think you might need a Website Re-Design, or maybe you don’t even have a website, feel free to contact me and I’ll take a look at what you have and see about improving it for you.