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The 2 Most Common Web Site Mistakes

When we review the sites of potential clients, there are 2 mistakes we see over and over. If you are having problems with your site, make sure these 2 problems aren't killing you.

Traffic

Just because you think something is a good idea doesn't mean the general public agrees. A web site should solve a problem that is common to some part of the population. If people have a problem, they will be compelled to find an answer to it. If they don't, they are not going to visit your site for anything other than browsing. Browsing doesn't pay the bills!

Do the research on Overture or your favorite tool. If there isn't a significant amount of monthly searches for your topic, move on to another one. If you think you can both alert people to a problem and solve it, you are in for a difficult time. It can be done, but your chances of success are pretty small.

Database Parameters

If you have a database driven site, you absolutely must get control of the sub-domains. Examples of database sites include sites selling products or providing some version of a listing service such as real estate or jobs. Programmers and designers have a bad habit of putting session ids in the sub-domains. Session ids are an indication of dynamic pages, pages that are built on the fly when the domain is triggered. A dynamic domain looks something like:

http://www.your-site.com/default.cfm?sid#####LLLLaaa#####

The problem with dynamic domains concerns search engine robots. A robot is designed to recognize the meta tags and content of a page. The robot will then include the page in the search database. Robots often refuse to index dynamic pages because the robot cannot predict the content on the page. From the robot's view, the page could show different things each time it is accessed. As a result, the search engines can't list it under any particular keyword with any confidence that the content will be relevant to the search. If you have dynamic pages, most of the pages of your site will never appear in Google, Yahoo and MSN. That's a disaster.

Planning is the key to setting up a profitable e-commerce site. Make sure you are solving a known problem and set your site up to be friendly to the search engine robots.

Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing and advertising company in San Diego, California.

MORE RESOURCES:

Yahoo! News Search Results for website design
Yahoo! News Search Results for website design

• StockLayouts Offers Subscriptions to Its Entire Design Template Library and R...
StockLayouts LLC , the leading provider of graphic design templates for print, has introduced subscriptions as the principal way for its customers to purchase and download a constant supply of its fully designed templates for creating business marketing materials.
• A Luna Blue Launches New Website. (Broadcast Newsroom)
Stock Footage Website Launched By A Luna Blue. DMN Newswire--2008-8-26--A Luna Blue stock footage launches a new website design. They're still tarting up nature, chasing moonlight and spinning the globe now with every stock video clip available in HD, DV and Multimedia formats.
• Reed Business Information's Design News (www.designnews.com) Announces Mechat...
WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 27 -- Design News (www.designnews.com) along with sister publications, Control Engineering, EDN and Test & Measurement World, have announced Mechatronics 2.0: Driving Innovation in the Auto Industry, an expo and conference on September 9th in Dearborn, Michigan at the Ford Motor Co. Event and Conference Center.
• Stracka Design Company Acquires GolfQ.com to Expand Golf Course Promotion Bus...
The Stracka Design Company LLC, home of www.Stracka.com, Golf's premier social network, has acquired the assets of Texas-based GolfQ.com Inc. GolfQ (www.GolfQ.com) touts itself as being the World's Largest Golf Community and has been helping golf courses promote their property since 1999.
• The Continental Group Launches Internet Marketing with New Website to help Co...
ELEMENTS, an internet marketing agency, Launches The Continental Group on ElementsConnect? for website management. The primary objective of the new website was enhancement of brand messaging, interactivity and design. ELEMENTS provides real value through a combination of beautiful designs, great customer service and innovative technology solutions. (PRWeb Aug 26, 2008) Read the full story at ...

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