The Myth of the Cute Website

Introduction

You probably conducted all kinds of research before you launched your business and having a website was probably in the top 5 items that you needed in order to be successful. However, just having a website will not guarantee you success. Hopefully your research also showed you that you need more than a “cute” website, but just in case you overlooked what really makes for an effective website, I have dispelled five common myths about websites.

Myth #1 – A Cute Website is a Good Website

Fact – There seems to be this notion going around that if people think your website is cute or looks good, you will get a lot of traffic. The only thing that will get you traffic is that your website is optimized to be found in search engines such as Google or Yahoo. For the record, the only thing that will continually attract people to your site is that you have the answers and solutions or the products and services that they are looking for.

Note: This myth was probably started by some web designer who was probably trying to sell somebody a website for way too much money… LOL

Myth #2 – Every Website Gets Lots of Traffic

Fact – Believe it or not, most website on the Internet, get very little traffic if any traffic at all. The primary reason for this is that very few sites have been optimized to rank in the search engines for traffic. Not only that, most sites don’t have any kind of metrics or analytics software installed or turned on. So even if they were getting visitor traffic, most wouldn’t know because they are not counting it or keeping score anyway.

Note: There’s no incentive for your web designer to install something like Google Analytics. Because if you knew how little traffic you were getting, you would probably want some of that money back they overcharged you.

Myth #3 – Since You Can Find Your Website by Name, SEO Has Been Performed on It

Fact – First of all, that means very little, because the only people that will search for your website by name, will be those people that know you. But what about those people that could benefit from your services, but they have no idea you exist? How will they find you? Second, if you cannot rank number 1 for your own domain name and brand, you have much bigger problems than an SEO consultant can help you with. Finally, if your web designer assures you that SEO has been performed by showing you this… Don’t walk, Run!

Myth #4 – Every Webmaster knows How to Perform SEO

Fact – Who told you that? Don’t assume that everybody you let work on your website has SEO knowledge. It takes more than reading one eBook to become knowledgeable in SEO. It takes years of studying and trial-and-error testing. Ask for proof. One way you can find out their SEO knowledge, is to ask what keywords their website is currently ranking for on the first page of Google.

Also, check their website’s Alexa ranking. Using Alexa is not perfect, but it will give you an idea of the amount of traffic they may be getting. If their ranking is not under 1 million, they are probably not getting much traffic.

Myth #5 – A Website for My Business is a Big Waste of Time

Fact – It can be, especially if your site is not attracting and converting customers for your business. Bottom line, building a website won’t guarantee you anything. The site needs to be designed to be successful, not just cute or look good.

To accomplish that it takes more than web skills, it requires a combination of talents. There are three things your web designer should know:

The best web platform for your business model
Proper SEO analysis and…
How to apply the right Internet marketing techniques to convert potential customers.