Web Design Pitfulls Small Businesses Should Avoid

Ideas on how to improve your website design are all around you, on living day examples of bad websites.

When I was recently on a business trip to Bavaria, I forgot to buy something Nordic to give as a present to my business associate. I went online to find a Finnish store in Munich and came across one that left much to be desired. So many things were wrong with the website it made me not even want to find the actual store to buy any gifts. There are many pitfalls that can be easily fixed with just a bit more thought, work and integration.

Where do I begin…

Point 1. Firstly trying to find the actual storefront would have been a rather difficult task, the site only gave the address of the shop. But there was no map or no instructions of what famous building or statue is even close to the store. FAIL 1

My Advice: This can easily be overcome by integrating a custom Google map into the website.

Point 2. The stores telephone number was only in the Bavarian style and not internationally written. I was using my Finnish phone and therefore calling the number on the site would not have been successful. FAIL 2

My Advice: When building websites one need to think internationally. Think Global Act Local as HSBC would say.

Point 3. All promotional messaging and copytext was exclusively in German, no Finnish text, no English text. FAIL 3! Instantly he loses out of the international community in Munich.

My advice: When catering to a market that consist of tourists, always be wise to have the site in the local language and the lingua franca of the world – English. Companies who simply cannot afford proper translation of their site, should consider integrating Google Translation on there site. I would not advise this personally, having said that I once saw an airline company using Google Translate as the means of offering alternative languages.

Point 4. The navigation of the website would have confused anyone. To navigate around the website one has to click on the images on the site, however when scrolling over the images, they stayed static, no rollover effects. There were also no alt tags to describe what the pictures were linking to. Fail 4

My advice: All images should have alt tags, not only is it good for the reader to see what the images are leading to. But also for blind users who are using a software which reads aloud the website content. Images which are clickable should have some sort of rollover effect on them, such as a Border surrounding it or a fading across the image when the mouse is scrolled on top of it.

Point 5. There is no opening time details on the home page, and one would have to navigate to the contact page to find out the opening times. Fail 5

My advice: A website is a marketing tool, things should be as easy and clear and as few clicks away from the customer. Place everything is easy eye few of the reader.

Point 6. The website had ZERO social elements or any web 2.0, no Facebook fanpage, no Twitter account, no comments or testimonial submission forms. No contact form either, just the email address. Fail 6

My advice: In this social media era, small businesses like this are competing with the likes of giants such as Amazon and they must engage in social media. Not even trying to succeed on this issue is a huge fail.

Point 7 The four images on the contact page FAILED! They did not display at all and I wondered, how long has it been like this? Using free services like “Are My Sites Up” you can always get instant feedback if pages or features fail. I have blogged about this service in a previous entry. Click here to read

My advice: A webmaster should check their website regularly for these mistakes, in my job and personal projects I have come across this, when everything is prefect and suddenly not. I tell myself “Those little pixies must have done something when I wasn’t looking. ”

Point 8. The web design proudly promotes his name in 2 very visible places for all the world to see. Fail number…..?? I forget!!

My Advice: I’m sorry web designers no one really cares about that, when browsing for Nordic souvenirs. At the very least it should be placed subtly only in a footer.

Point (I lost count!!) Finally the ULTIMATE FAIL of all. There is no online shopping cart, no possibility what so ever to buy any of the products shown on the site online.

My Advice: Small businesses in this economy need to be looking at alternative sales channels, opening an online storefront alongside the traditional storefront is indeed positive and necessary to survive. This is so easy with the many online storefront options out there, such as using paypal, Site Build It or the Dreamhost Shopping cart feature.

Disclaimer: Note that I have not disclosed the name of the site I was referring to. I do not feel the need to publically shame the company but I hope that other website designers would learn from this sites mistakes. I am considering mailing this blog entry to the owner. Should I?