The Platform

10 reasons why websites fail

Posted 8 March 2011 in Online marketing

Spent a fortune on a website and it’s not delivering? Frustrating, isn’t it? You’re not alone.

I’m Angela Ellis, one of the Directors here at Stop the Train and I've talked to hundreds of business owners in the same situation. I’ve listened to rants about web companies that have quite frankly stretched my vocabulary and the messages coming through are the same; you’ve all got websites that aren’t bringing in enough enquiries!

I’m not going to defend the web agencies but I am going to explain why I believe this situation occurs so frequently. Let’s see if this rings any bells with you. You discussed a budget, you explained what your company does, you talked about colours that you liked and disliked, you may have highlighted sites you liked and sites you didn’t, you gave them a list of features you’d like for your new site and you suggested a list of pages. Your ‘wishlist’ was perhaps bigger than your budget so the features and pages were then set according to your budget.

Still with me? Ok, then let’s rewind a little. Usually you’re talking to a designer that creates great-looking websites or a geek that builds them, which is why the features and style were discussed. As a marketing strategist and copywriter, I would also have discussed several other areas with you. It doesn’t matter how great your site looks and how cool all the features are if nobody visits or enquires as a result.

I’d have recommended that rather than writing the content yourself, that you asked a copywriter to do it – preferably one of ours! I’d have also suggested that we talked about how your ideal customers were going to find your website and agreed a strategy to make that happen. These vital components to your website traditionally make the difference between a site that’s has been a valuable investment for your business or a site that has cost you thousands of pounds.

I’ve produced a list of the 10 main reasons why websites don’t bring in enough of the right enquiries. It assumes that your business proposition is sound, your site has been up for more than a couple of weeks, and that you have systems in place to monitor where your enquiries are coming from.

The next reason will form the next blog, with the remaining 10 being added over the next few months. If you can’t wait, or would rather have it in a report format, drop us a line and we’ll email it over as a pdf.

Read the first 6 reasons in this series;

1. The Content

2. The Navigation

3. The Design

4. The Build

5. The Search Engines

6. The Marketing

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