I did it again. I started blogging about one thing and by the end of my last post “Fort Collins Web Design Company Reveals #1 Design Mistake,” I had rambled off-topic. Last time I was supposed to talk about the #1 mistake that web design companies make but I started bird-walking and discussed the 3 steps to online success instead. Sorry about that. That’s how blogs go, I guess.
So I’ll try and stay on course today…
What’s the number one mistake that web design companies make? That’s a hard one. There are so many. The list of mistakes that I’ve seen is growing every day. Here’s one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve seen. It’s actually kind of funny.
One of our clients, a bike shop had their website designed by a company that has literally designed about 90% of all bike shops around the country. They came to us concerned that their website wasn’t getting any traffic. After a little investigation, I found out that the code of the website included a line that actually told the search engines to go away and ignore the whole site. The company that designed the site literally told Google to go away and not include the website in their listings. Can you think of any reason they’re not getting any traffic when they tell Google to get out?
It gets worse. I looked at the web design company’s site and they made the same mistake with their own website…and all of their other clients’ sites. Hundreds of bike shops have become the victim of SEO malpractice. That one seems like it should qualify as the #1 website mistake but there are so many others.
How about this one? Millions of sites are making this mistake. They include meta keyword tags in their code while neglecting to include the same words in their content. While a technical matter, you may not understand what that means, but the end result is easy to understand. Make that stupid mistake and your site will be penalized in Google’s rankings if not totally banned. Don’t believe me? BMW made that mistake and their site disappeared off of Google for 30 days as punishment.
Oh, I could go on and on listing the dumb things that ignorant web design companies do to harm their clients’ sites. To make sure that you’re not the next victim of SEO malpractice, check out the article on the IBCC’s website, How to Choose a Web Site Design Company.
Or, give Red Rocket a call and one of our professionals will take a quick look through your site and let you know if we see any of the most common mistakes. If you can handle the no-bs approach, give us a call and we’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to turn your website around. Our number is 970-674-0079. I hope to talk with you soon.
Chadd Bryant