Is Your Website Stuck in the 90’s? Top Ten Signs.

Posted by Laura Bergells

November 13, 2006

I frequently review sites for direct marketing viability.

But lately, I find myself muttering “that’s so 1990’s” when I review a number of sites. Now, I’m not a fashionista. I don’t believe in doing things just because they’re popular, or not doing things because they are unpopular.

I believe in reviewing the stats, and doing the stuff that makes sense. Listen, I’ve seen “ugly” sites that pull traffic like crazy and have terrific sales conversion.

And I’ve seen “gorgeous” design sites that get almost no traffic and definitely no sales or leads.

So let’s not talk fashion.

Because quite honestly, I enjoyed the 90’s. The 90’s were very good to me. Quite the economic boom.

But times have changed, and if you haven’t changed your website (much) since the 1990’s, your business could be in peril. And it’s not a fashion thing. It’s not a popularity thing.

It’s strictly a business thing. Web visitors are more sophisticated now, and they demand different stuff than they did in the 90’s.

So here is my top ten list of the most bone-headed “that’s so 1990’s” onsite web factors that could be killing your business. This is a checklist for you to follow as you head into 2007. And many of these items are the “easy-to-implement, done in a day” kind of changes that you can start fixing over lunches and coffee breaks.

Is Your Website Stuck in the 90’s?
Here are the Top Ten Signs.

10. Linking to your web designer. It was fun to give link love to your designer in the 1990’s. But think about your real world business — is the construction sign still outside your building after 7 years in business? Of course not! Unless you have some monetary or marketing arrangement with your designer/developer, why the heck would you send customers away from your site…or give up valuable marketing space? So unless you are getting something very valuable in return for the link (i.e., are they paying you? are you related to them?), get rid of the prominently featured “developed by” link.

9. Splash pages. People are looking for information when they are online. A splash page (usually developed in Flash), puts a barrier between your customers and your information. You might love your flashy slide show that costs thousands to develop. But you didn’t develop your site for you: you developed it for your customers. And 2006 web visitors hate splash pages. Think about how many times you’ve skipped them, yourself. If you have ‘em on your site, get rid of ‘em.

8. No marketing stats. A client might not believe me when I tell them that their customers hate their splash pages. So I say, “Look at your stats. What percentage of your site visitors made it past the splash page?” And even though it’s 2006, I still have prospects say, “we don’t have stats”. Listen, if they don’t have stats, they don’t know what’s working and what’s not. They’re not measuring success. And without marketing measures, they’re not really in business. Get a marketing stats package installed pronto and review the results religiously and regularly.

7. Pop-ups. I still see sites that open up a new instance of a browser whenever I click on a link. And worse, the new pop-up often doesn’t have links back to the rest of the site. This is lousy usability. It’s 2006. People are accustomed to using the Back and Forward buttons in their browsers. It’s an easy way to navigate. Get rid of the go-nowhere pop up pages.

6. Wacky navigation. I often see sites that offer idiotically complicated navigation scenarios. Consider the Google webmaster guidelines: “Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.” This means a nice, clean, horizontal structure. Look at some of your favorite sites: the navigation is undoubtedly simple. If you have a nav structure featuring a cascading Java or Flash menu structure, take a look at your stats. How many people are clicking on this abomination? Not a whole lot, I’ll warrant. Get rid of it. Keep navigation simple.

5. Missing “Contact Us” Information. Gee, if you have an online business, you want people to contact you. And you want to make it EASY for people to contact you. I recently reviewed a mid-size company web site with NO phone number: anywhere on the site. The webmaster actually said, “This is the internet. I want people to email us, that way we know it’s an internet lead. If we get a phone call, then we won’t know if it came from the internet or not. So, our policy is, no phone numbers on our website.” Listen, if finding out how people found you is important, then just ASK! But make it as easy as possible for people to contact you in whatever way they find the most comfortable. Put your complete contact info on every page…or at least on a “contact us” page. This also helps develop trust. Don’t wait on this one. Do it right now.

4. Un-memorable URLs. The company name is an acronym that is 30 letters long. The URL is a complete sentence with dashes between every word. The company couldn’t get the URL they wanted, so they stuck an “e”, “i”, or “go” in front of it. These situtations all represent terrible business URLs. A good e-commerce URL is short, unique, and memorable. It’s a name that people will enter directly into their browsers. If you don’t have one, go through a naming exercise, and get yourself a keeper.

3. Corporate speak. You’ve seen these sites, and you hate these sites. I call them “we-we” sites. You know…”We do this…” and “We do that…” For these sites, it’s all about them and their egos. Lots of jargon. Lots of third person language. Little to no personality. I talked to a small business owner last month — his previous online consultant told him that to be successful, he had to make it appear as if he were a large corporation. Bogus. I told him the exact opposite — talk to your customers as if you are a person talking to a person, not a corporation talking to a corporation. Develop a persona, a point of view. Connect with your customers as individuals: use lots of “you” speak, not “we” speak. The part about “sustaining leveragable viability?” — it’s gotta go.

2. Suddenly, sound! Let’s say a client sells a consumer product and stats reveal that most of the site’s visitors show up between 11am and 2pm. Sad but true: this means that it’s quite likely that visitors are shopping on the company computer. So how smart is it to suddenly have a sound file blare? Know this: customers are going to hit “close” on their browser buttons as fast as humanly possible, to prevent co-workers from catching them doing personal business on the company dime. Got sound? Let customers opt-in to listening to it. Otherwise, keep it quiet.

1. Burying the lead. I’ve reviewed sites where I’ve said, “What the heck is this site trying to get me to do?” And after reviewing 4 or 5 pages, I still didn’t know! I often see lots of high-minded esoteric mumbo-jumbo, but no benefits or calls to action! So when you write copy for your site, ask yourself: ”What benefit am I offering visitors? And what do I want them to do?” Then tell them, as simply and as clearly as you can. Use “you speak” and “action phrases” to let your visitors that you have their interests in mind. Keep your “we-we” elsewhere.

Bottom line: get out of your own ego, and into the egos of your prospects and clients. You might be real proud of your mission statement, history, sound files, and splash page — but your web visitors don’t like ‘em. They’re standing between you and honest-to-goodness leads and sales.