Top 7 Ways to Lose Customers from Your Website

Many people invest lots of time and energy in getting people to visit their website but often fail to deliver what the prospect is look for, or fail to set up their website in the most effective manner. Below are 7 areas to be aware of when building your website as they are near surefire ways to lose potential customers from your website.

1. Flash.
   
   Most people who find your website, especially through a web search are looking for a solution, not a show. Most people won't have the patience to wait for your flash to load.
   
   
2. Advertising.
   
   Whether it's an obnoxious flashing banner ad, or contextual ads such as Google's AdSense (which are often overused), this is one of the best ways to send your customers away.
   
   
3. No Call to action.
   
   I recently assessed two websites for finance companies; one of them failed to put an "Apply Now" button and the other only had it on the front page. My recommendation was to add it to all of the pages to help prospects see exactly how to apply in the shortest amount of time.
   
   
4. Typos.
   
   Some people neglect the basics such as running a spell checker which can make a site look very amateur. One of the advantages of the web is that you can make a small company look like a Fortune 500 company just by how it is presented. On the contrary, a poor presentation can make any company, no matter how strong look like it is run by uneducated or careless people.
   
   
5. Mixed Marketing Message.
   
   Often a rookie business owner will try to offer too many different products or services from the same website which confuses the visitors. Your message should be focused and you should offer expertise so that your visitors see you as the expert in your field which will increase the likelihood of earning their business.
   
   
6. No means of capturing customer info.
   
   If you spent time and money getting visitors to your website, you should take the next step of getting their contact information. The best way it to offer a free ebook or newsletter in exchange for their name and email address so you can contact them.
   
   
7. Slow Load Time.
   
   Similar to #1, no one wants to wait for oversize images to load. It is a simple process to optimize your websites graphics and most graphics editing software tools have an option to optimize images for the web.

Anthony Kirlew is an Online Business Development Consultant, Founder of Web Traffic Team (an Internet Marketing firm), and the author of "Internet Marketing Secrets from the Trenches". You can subscribe to his blog at http://www.OldSchoolSEO.com or visit his company website http://www.webtrafficteam.com for more information.