1. No Contact Info on the front page
You gotta make it easy for customer to contact you. Think of it like this: The way you think about your website and the way you feel is two completely different things. Just like you, visitor who is browsing is under strict time pressure. he’s got kids to pickup from school, he’s got to make dinner, pay the bills, make important calls, etc. You’ve got to make it easy for him to contact you. Put your phone number, fax, address on the front page. Put a link in big letters if you want him to send you email, have an opt-in box if you want to collect his information. And that leads into reason number 2.

2. No directions that visitor can follow when he gets to your site.

you must give directions to the visitor what you want him to do. Do not just assume visitor will like the way it looks and start searching for your phone number and call you. Just like in real world you would use a presentation to sell a product or service, same online you must create a visual model for people to follow.
Example,
Step1: they come read about your product or service
step2: you ask them to click here or to call here to get a free report or listen to recorded information, or watch a video.
step3: in your step2 information you reveal more details about your product and ask them to buy or sign up or whatever you want them to do.
in other words make it simple for the prospect to buy if he decides so. (Amazon.com has a one click check out button).

3. Too much graphic content that overrides your product or service.
Images are nice and cool, but if ever read a copywriting bible by a pioneer ad man Claude Hopkins called “Scientific Advertising”, you would know this and would not ever do it again. In the book he touches on using graphics quite intensely. He claims images don’t sell, words do. Don’t get me wrong, sales letter can be greatly supported with images and it would be wise to do so, but do not make image or logo your center of attention. You’re not a big corporation or a company that is building a brand. You can not afford that. focus on getting clients, send them a message that will attract them to you instead. They don’t care about your logo. Only you do.

4. Absence of Offer
My great mentor Dan Kennedy, has got these “Eternal Truths” and one of them is: “There will always be an offer”. This applies to direct response marketing everyone should use, no matter if you have a website, create brochure, sign, postcard or put ad in the paper. Always give people a reason to respond. Offer something, a report [like this one]  -tell them why your business is better, a discount, a free video to watch, a gift, trial version of your product or service, a book, coupon, etc. You get the idea. give them a reason to respond so you can capture their name an address for follow up.

5. Absence of Deadlines

If you have a promotion going on or you’re offering something, you must put a deadline for your offer. make it big and visible. This creates urgency.You can not force people to do something right away, only because you want so, but deadlines can. Use deadlines. “Offer ends February 20th”.

6. It takes forever for your site to load

Yes, some websites still do load very slowly, strictly because of poor hosting provider. Some websites also have too much graphic or dynamic content that takes forever to load and creates impatience. Good rule of thumb – simple is better. do not overload your site with unnecessary stuff that looks cool. No one cares. If people want to see cool graphics, Avatar or other motion pictures films are available on dvd and I dont think you can make better graphics than James Cameron. So don’t. Remember your goal is sale or customer lead, not to impress them with your web designers graphical talent. This is a very misleading concept that people have in their minds, because again its copied from the giant companies, who are all about image and brand. You are not (yet). Don’t get me wrong, Im not saying it’s got to be ugly, make it professional but simple is the key.
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7. Absence of Testimonials

Your website must have testimonials on front page. period. In form of video(best), audio or written. You must get them up there. Remember, what you say about your business is not the same as someone else saying something good about your business.
Many people have a belief that testimonials are fake so they don’t use them. But that’s not true. Everyone use testimonials and they do work. Note: There are laws now in effect that limit your freedom of using testimonials. To find out more about guidelines go here: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

8. Absence of Strong Attention Grabbing headline and Compelling message

Attention grabbing headline is usually words in big bold letters, that grabs readers attention and in short sentence speaks a very important benefit to the reader. example: “Your Computer Fixed and your data saved in 24 hours!”. For a person who has a broken computer and needs to fix it fast this is a very great attention grabbing headline. or “your pizza deliver hot and fresh in less than 30 minutes – this is the famous dominoes headline.
Many websites do not have any compelling message nor headline. They start with Our company… or some blabber unimportant stuff about company or their philosophy that no one cares about. In todays fast paced environment, especially on web, you got to act quick, grab attention, get to the point, make them take action.

Finally.

number one thing people overlook when building a website is – a reason to have one in first place.

The reason to have a website is to make sales. period. if you don’t why bother having one. You wouldnt rent a store in the middle of the mall and keep your doors closed, would you? Same with the website. People have tendency to get carried away with the whole technology buzz and want to have a website for the sake of having a website. That is a waste of time, money and energy. If you don’t need one, dont have one. If you decided you’re going in, do some market research, compare prices, get some quotes, learn some internet marketing, get some SEO done, get some traffic to your site and then adjust your site so it sells. Remember a website is just another tool in your business, which does have plenty advantages.

WebDesignextra.com gets your site done in 21 days. We offer extensive advice and internet marketing service that gets traffic to a website so you can make sales. contact us at 877-899-7009 or email ed@webdesignextra.com for a free quote, market evalutation and free keyword research, just mention word “Buzz”