Websites that succeed are so passé. Best practices and known keys to success have become the norm. What kind of blah existence is that? Rather, buck tradition, say no to the status quo and build a website that will fail within a year.
Interested? Good. These are seven steps to follow if you want to build a website that is sure to fail:
1. Have a Homepage without a Clear Message
Your website’s home page is your first impression. Typically, web designers want this page to captivate audiences and communicate your company’s mission. They want the homepage to draw visitors in and give them a reason to keep exploring and clicking through your site. They will often use a toolbar to give visitors options. If you want your website to fail, then avoid all of these things. When you want your website to fail, make your homepage as messy as possible. Share every idea, service and goal on your homepage. Bonus points go to the websites with itty-bitty text.
2. Create Content that is Common & Mediocre
Websites that quickly succeed create and share their own original content which visitors will find valuable. The easiest way to avoid providing original content is to copy scrap – grab content from another site and throw it up on yours. This is particularly effective in helping you fail if you do not attribute your source.
3. Make Your Site Difficult to Navigate
Websites that make it easy for visitors to navigate from page to page and find the information they are looking for are well loved by web users and search engines alike. Help your website take a nose dive by getting rid of your navigation bar and hiding hyperlinks within images.
4. Don’t Update it Often
Regularly updating your website with new content not only improves your search engine optimization (SEO), but intrigues repeat visitors with a fresh perspective. Updating page content and providing a regular blogroll keep websites from becoming stale. Don’t update your text. Don’t publish new posts. Keep your content stale and watch your website fail. (Also, don’t rhyme. It makes you look way too cool.)
5. Have an Inconsistent Message
One of the keys to a successful website is maintaining a company’s brand. To do so, the message must remain consistent throughout the website. These websites want to maintain the same tone and level of professionalism. And, they want to talk about the same general, brand relevant topics. You, on the other hand, want to talk about the green leaves that are growing on the moon, the splinter you have in your little toe and how your grandfather never told you he loved you because he died before you were born.
6. Use Unattractive Graphics & Difficult to Decipher Fonts
On good websites, font is an afterthought to visitors and images communicate a clear story. Both fonts and graphics are attractive. They are scaled to fit the space appropriately and uploaded in small, manageable file sizes. To help your site fail, you want to make sure to use strange graphics that will catch visitors’ attention and force them to reread your text. You want to use huge graphics with large resolution sizes so they take a long time to load and slow the website down.
7. Don’t Get Help
Businesses with successful sites understand that websites are not their thing. They use their time, resources, and expertise to build their business. They hire an affiliate management company to ensure their website runs smoothly. The affiliate company also helps troubleshoot in the inevitable event there is a snafu with the website. To ensure your website fails, you want to avoid using an affiliate management service at all costs.
Of course, you could use the opposite of these seven tips to build a website that succeeds. But, where would be the fun in that?
Nicole has been writing about internet marketing for years. She loves helping teach business owners how to find success online.
