8 Bad Decisions When Starting a New Website

When starting a new website there are a number of decisions that you will make that can have a huge impact on the long-term success of the site. Many times these decisions don’t seem as important as just getting the site up and running and as a result they don’t get the attention they deserve. Here are 8 decisions that can cripple your chances of building an effective website.

1. Free or Cheap Web Hosting - Many aspiring website owners are tempted by low cost hosting options. It’s understandable that someone would want a low-priced or free hosting company when starting a new website, but this can have serious consequences. Free hosting will be slow and will most likely include ads on your website that you have no control over. Even low-priced hosting tends to be slow and the customer service and support will almost certainly be inadequate.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on hosting. In fact, quality services are very reasonably priced . What you will quickly learn is that your hosting company will strongly influence the performance of your site. When your website goes down because of inferior hosting you’ll understand the true cost of not spending a few more dollars each month for a better option.

2. Not Buying a Domain Name - If you want your online business to be taken seriously, you need your own domain name. Many free hosting services, including blog platforms like WordPress, offer the option of having a website without needing to buy a domain name. Domain names are so inexpensive (can be less than $10 a year at GoDaddy.com) that there’s no reason to not buy a domain. Your domain name is crucial for being able to brand your website.

3. Not Getting the Right Domain Name - Buying the wrong domain name is almost as bad as not buying one at all. Unfortunately, finding the right domain name today is not an easy task. With millions of websites online your first choice will rarely be available. Your domain name should be easily remembered and relevant to your site. Very long domain names can be difficult for visitors to remember, and they increase chances for typos from potential visitors. If possible, choose a .com without hyphens (if it’s not possible to avoid hyphens, don’t use more than one) that contains a keyword. There are a number of tools available to help you to quickly find the right domain name.

4. Designing Exclusively for Search Engines - In attempt to gain strong search engine rankings, the human visitor is sometimes forgotten. Don’t prioritize search engine spiders over your visitors. It’s possible to design a user-focused website that is still search engine-friendly. If your website satisfies its visitors the traffic will come, and most likely so will search engine rankings.

5. Prioritizing the Look Over the Content - A lot of new website owners get excited about the new site and forget that the content is what will ultimately determine it’s success. Sure, a website should look good. But the content and usability of the site shouldn’t suffer at the expense of its appearance. Minimalistic designs are becoming increasingly popular, and one of the biggest reasons is that they allow for the content to be the focal point. Just as much time and effort should go into creating the content as goes into creating the design.

6. Forgetting About the Target Market - Every website is created for some target market or target audience. Try to always keep them in mind as you are creating the site. In order to succeed, you’ll need to provide them with what they want. It’s easy to forget about your target market and design the site how you like it, but what really matters is what your target market will think. Anticipate what they will be looking for at your site and find a way to meet their needs.

7. Poor Navigation - One of the most frustrating experiences for a website’s visitors will be trying to find something specific with poor navigation. The pages and sections of the site should be easy and logical for visitors to maneuver. For larger sites a sitemap and site wide search can be very helpful.

8. Ineffective Keyword Targeting - Part of attracting new visitors is using the right keywords and phrases. In most cases some research will be necessary to find the best words and phrases to target. There are a number of tools available to help with this research (some free and some paid). Google’s keyword tool is one of the better free options.

Steven on November 29, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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46 Responses to “8 Bad Decisions When Starting a New Website”

Eli on November 29th, 2007 12:46 pm

All are very good, and valid points you’ve pointed out here. I hope 100’s of beginners will learn from this article.
Daniel on November 29th, 2007 1:28 pm

Good points.

Another one suggestion from a friend: Avoid buying domains that have been banned from Google.
Ad Tracker on November 29th, 2007 1:47 pm

Wow! I’ve only broken 6 out of 8!

That means 25% of my decissions have been spot on!
The Geek on November 29th, 2007 3:36 pm

It’s definitely important to do research on a domain before you buy it… archive.org is useful for finding out if a domain has ever been used before.

The absolute best tool for finding a domain: http://www.bustaname.com/

I only found that tool recently… has saved me so much time while looking for a name for some new sites.
Lana on November 29th, 2007 6:10 pm

Thanks for the great article. To echo Eli, I am a beginner, and I’ve learned 2 things today: Google Keyword Tool and Domain Name Search. What a revelation.
And how do you find out if a domain been banned from Google?
Daniel on November 29th, 2007 6:23 pm

Lana, you can use this tool http://www.iwebtool.com/google_banned
Lana on November 29th, 2007 7:13 pm

Thanks, it makes it 3!
Steven on November 29th, 2007 11:46 pm

That’s a good point about checking out the domain name. I’ve always purchased new domain names, but that’s becoming very hard to do these days. Nice addition.
NextInstinct on November 30th, 2007 1:56 am

#26 Not dating your blog posts at the top.
bluefrogx on November 30th, 2007 4:01 am

I fail on #26 sometimes since I queue up stories. Sometimes I forget to edit the date, and the post comes up a few days early, LOL
Ian N on November 30th, 2007 11:25 am

Aw man, now I gotta get rid of premium-search-engine-optimisation-company-limited.com.

Seriously though, sometimes we do forget the basics (I hope I’m not the only one) and it’s always nice to read something like this that just gives us a nudge to remember!

Cheers

Ian
jim on November 30th, 2007 1:59 pm

Nice article. Thanks for the tips.

http://www.floors4u.net/
Daniel on November 30th, 2007 3:39 pm

I think it is a mistake to date posts on top. You don’t to scare away people that would think your post might be outdated.

Just give them the content without distractions. If for some reader they must find when it was wrote, they can always scroll down.
g1smd on November 30th, 2007 9:29 pm

Get domain names matching the most obvious typos and 301 redirect them to the correct domain.

You don’t want your competitors to own those domains do you?
Barry Welford on December 1st, 2007 5:02 pm

There are some excellent tips here, particularly the emphasis on the domain name. I believe you should “own” your name on the Internet. Just do a google search for your proposed name and see what kind of competition you will have.
Niz on December 1st, 2007 6:09 pm

Also, the newbies shouldn’t go after highly competitive markets like diet pills, ring tones etc. And, never let the motivation die.
T3 on December 1st, 2007 7:22 pm

Thanks for the tips…I recently started a blog geared towards independent trainers and consultants. I created a subdomain to house the blog.

I’ll be doing some research and monitoring for the next couple weeks to make sure I’m on the right track.

Again good stuff! Thanks!
Gopinath M on December 2nd, 2007 2:52 pm

Here is the list of cool sites where you can check availabiilyt of domain names as well you get nice suggestions
http://mgopinath.blogspot.com/.....ty-of.html
Dito on December 6th, 2007 10:03 pm

All very good tips! #7 Poor Navigation, is my biggest per peeve.
Eric on December 9th, 2007 2:14 pm

All good points….common sense really, however we all know that common sense is not that common. When we designed our web site (www.yakkle.com), we had to accomodate both a professional audience and a younger/social audience since our product caters to both. Makes me wonder if we should do 2 flavors on our web site and let visitors navigate to either one?
Exercise Equipment on December 9th, 2007 5:12 pm

Yeh that really is spot on, I did most of that in the early days. It does seem straight forward advice, but take note anyone starting out!
Jermayn Parker on December 10th, 2007 4:50 am

I would also add not having an original design as a bad web practice..
Small Business Web Solutions on February 17th, 2008 11:09 pm

yeah i have a friend in the industry who has a $50 flash template as his website…he is a web design firm. it’s crazy…
MMA on April 18th, 2008 3:23 am

Here is the list of cool sites where you can check availabiilyt of domain names as well you get nice suggestions
Flash Drive on April 18th, 2008 3:23 am

All very good tips! #7 Poor Navigation, is my biggest per peeve.Financial Management
DRAM module on April 18th, 2008 3:24 am

Nice article. Thanks for the tips.
Fit Furniture on April 24th, 2008 2:00 am

I only found that tool recently… has saved me so much time while looking for a name for some new sites.

http://www.interiordesign-studio.com/showroom.html
???? on April 29th, 2008 11:14 am

I find that I get a serious case of add when reading blogs. There’s so much information out there I tend to read as much of

it as I can & never really stop to think to comment on people posts! How rude of me….. :
???? on April 29th, 2008 11:15 am

but your blog drives me INSANE. everytime I move NEAR a link I get some retarded pop up link tellimg me what I already know. it slows down my browser and irritates the heck out of me!!

but great tut and it helped lots! cheers!hahh
show on April 29th, 2008 11:16 am

but your blog drives me INSANE. everytime I move NEAR a link I get some retarded pop up link tellimg me what I already know. it slows down my browser and irritates the heck out of me!!

but great tut and it helped lots! cheers!
http://www.internationalremova.....mpany.html
Punit Soni on May 3rd, 2008 9:36 am

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