There are hundreds of mistakes you can make with your small business blog or website. There are very few true masters of the art of internet design that are able to make a great site or blog that functions well and offers the correct SEO opportunities for your business. Many times small business owners are designing their blog or website by themselves and are not aware of all things that can trip them up.

Here are our top three problems when designing your small business website or blog:

Thinking fancy blog or website design is good for business

When most small business owners start building their website or blog, the first thing they do is pick a snazzy template or choose their colors. They make sure they know what kind of fancy flash design they are going to use or which logo will work best.

That is NOT the most important thing about blog or website design! The single most important thing is to know what the goal is for your small business website or blog. Are you trying to get web hits or are you looking to collect email addresses. Are you getting people to purchase something online or are you trying to get them to visit your online store?

When someone visits your blog or website, they should know RIGHT AWAY what you want them to do. There should be a prominent button that directs them to your goal or there could be a popup box that offers something for free in trade for their contact information. If you look at most websites, there is so much going on there that no one knows what to do!

Not having the right Search Engine Optimization for your website or blog

There are lots of companies out there who say they will get your blog or website to the top of the search engines for a specific search string. That is true but it will not get you consistent, targeted visitors. Ranking well for one or two terms is not going to make the difference - ranking well for lots of terms is possible now with thoughtful planning.

Have a qualified website company do a keyword research analysis report for you and then use those keywords throughout your pages and posts. Be mindful that your title, description and first paragraph all match. Use a free keyword research tool to make sure that your site is about what you intend.

A big red flag about those cute flash websites that every small business owner thinks they need. When you have a landing page in front of your website, google does not know anything about your company. When you have a gorgeous site with all kinds of images, google does not have any content to spider. Please make sure to focus functionality, having lots of keyword rich content on your blog or website!

Trying to do it by themselves

This is not a pitch for your blog or website design business. There are lots of great web design companies out there who spend a lot of money and time researching the latest search engine information and who do great work. Your old Frat Brother who knows how to make a website with Frontpage is not spending all of his time researching the current internet info. Your pal John would be great for building a personal page but we are talking about your company, you need a professional website or blog.

You may be surprised at how the cost of blog and website design has gone down lately. What used to cost a fortune now costs much less and most small business owners can afford to hire a professional!

If you cannot afford to hire a professional, make sure that you take some seminars on how to use HTML correctly. There are great classes {both in person and online} {online and in person}, just know that your time to market will be longer than if you have someone do it for you.

Well there you go, our big three mistakes that we see entrepreneurs make with their blog or website design efforts. Some of these might make sense to you and some probably make you uncomfortable, but they are all fact. We work with many different kinds of companies and see lots of business owners making these mistakes.

If you would like to find out about 10 More Mistakes Small Business Blogs and Websites make, please visit our site!