Today, I’d like to discuss why most websites fail. Spend any amount of time searching online and you will find that many websites haven’t been updated in months, sometimes even years. Basically, these websites have been abandoned and left to die a slow death. Many of these websites’ webmasters had good intentions when they first got started, but for whatever reason, things changed.
Or, someone registered a domain, but never renewed it the following year. Or, someone starts a website, but takes it down after three to six months. This is VERY common online.
10 Reasons Why Websites Fail
Listed below are the 10 most common reasons I can think of covering why websites fail. I could not find the statistics online to rank these reasons in any kind of order. Keep in mind this is just my opinion. If you disagree with what I’ve listed, please leave a comment below.
# 1: Loss of Interest
One of the most commons reasons websites fail is because the blogger or webmaster lost interest in the website. Let’s keep it real for a moment. We live in an instant gratification society. People want it and they want it now. They don’t want to wait for things.
Because it’s practically free to do, many people start a website without putting much thought into it. It’s like an “idea of the month.” Once they get started and they find out how much work is involved, or how long it takes to succeed, many bloggers lose interest and move on to the next shiny object.
Starting a new blog is an exciting time that is filled with a lot of hope and enthusiasm.
The sad part is that most bloggers will lose that excitement and enthusiasm when they start to realize that results are hard to come by – traffic is low, earnings are hard to achieve, and growth just doesn’t seem to occur.
Source: Blog Tyrant
# 2: Bad Niche
Not all niches are created equal. Some niches are OVERLY COMPETITIVE. They are dominated by companies with deep advertising pockets. If you pick a broad niche like weight loss or make money online, it will be very difficult for your website to get noticed. Why? There is just too much competition.
Also, some people pick niches like the make money online niche because they think it will be fast and easy money. They think a niche like that is better than a smaller niche that is “less sexy.”
If you really want a good niche, there are two things you must look for. First off, you really should be PASSIONATE about the niche. If you love the niche, you will never run out of ideas to write about. It will be a labor of love.
Finally, you want a niche that is small and not overly competitive. For example, a niche such as herbal weight loss would be less competitive than the weight loss niche. Or a niche about model airplanes would be easier to dominate than the book niche. Make sense?
Niche selection should be based on demand from search engines and also your interest or knowledge area. If both matches then it will be good for you to write blogs of good quality regularly.
Source: uxbasix
# 3: Poor Monetization Methods
Another common reason why websites fail is because the webmaster didn’t have a good way to monetize their website. If all you are doing is AdSense or Amazon, it will be hard to make much money. You need a TON of traffic to make any type of money with those monetization methods.
You want a niche where they are affiliate products and services already made that you can promote. You want a niche that is already spending money online. You can, but you don’t really want to go down the road of having to create your own products and service to sell.
Google AdSense won’t let you pick the ads for your target audience that means you are irritating your blog audience with your ads. Whereas with affiliate marketing, you can promote relevant products that suit your audience.
You can increase your clicks by promoting the relevant products to your blog audience. So even with limited amount of traffic, you can drive more affiliate sales.
Source: BloggersPassion
# 4: Poor Traffic
You can have the most beautiful website in the world, but if you don’t have lots of targeted traffic, it doesn’t matter. Getting traffic from the search engines takes time, especially if you are a new website. It can easily take 6-12 months for your new content to get found and ranked in the search engines.
Organic traffic is the best, but it is a LONG-TERM game. It won’t happen overnight, no matter how good your content is.
Also, if your entire business plan is designed around organic free traffic from the search engines, your business is at the mercy of Google. You don’t want that to happen. Why? Because if Google wakes up one day and no longer likes your website, and they deindex it or lower your rankings, your traffic can dry up overnight.
Website traffic (or the number of visitors to your website) is important because the number of visitors equals the number of opportunities you have to add new customers. The number of visitors to your website becomes the number of opportunities your business has to share its brand, to give an impression, to build relationship. The more traffic to your website, the more opportunities you have to generate qualified leads, to nurture and help solve their problem and ultimately sell your product or service, gain a new customer or client, and continue to grow your business.
Source: Half a Bubble Out
# 5: Bad Content
On the internet, content is king. HIGH QUALITY UNIQUE CONTENT is what matters most. If your content is boring, has typos, is not well organized or does not flow properly, do not expect people to come back to your website or share it with others.
Spend a lot of time coming up with your content. You want your visitors to say:
Damn, that was the best piece of content I ever read about that subject.
You want well researched articles that are factual, conversational and easy to read. You want good pictures that really stand out. You want embedded videos that add value to your article.
# 6: No Marketing Plan
Your website is a business. Like any other business, you need a written marketing plan. This plan should cover your competitors, your unique selling proposition, your mission and vision statement and your daily marketing plan.
If you spend 8 hours writing a blog post, you should spend at least 16 hours promoting that blog post. Marketing is vital. Marketing and promoting your content are much more important than creating new content.
You want to utilize paid and free marketing strategies. You want at least five to ten strategies you can use that will send a steady flow of targeted traffic to your website.
The bottom line is that failing to plan is planning to fail. You can’t just write articles or “wing it” and expect your traffic to grow much.
Be sure you’ve planned how you’re going to market your website. Without a strategy developed, you’ll never make it. Map it out and take time to execute the plan. And remember, if it does not work the first time, tweak it and continue to grow your ROI. Since most online sales start with a search, have a search engine optimization and paid search marketing strategy (and budget).
Source: OuterBox
# 7: Didn’t Give it Enough Time
Building a successful website will take you at least five to ten YEARS. Very few people tell you that upfront, but it’s the truth.
It is not a short-term project. Give yourself time to succeed. Have realistic expectations and always take the long-term view with your website.
If you’re going to just try it out for six to twelve months do yourself a favor and don’t even get started. Do something else instead.
Stay persistent, stay consistent and stay the course. Most bloggers give up in less than a year. Don’t be a statistic! Finish what you started.
Invest enough time to learn the things that will benefit your project. Develop your own voice and stick to it, concentrate on the content and value creation.
Be committed to put enough work before seeing any results.
Source: Medium
# 8: The I Will Do Everything Myself Syndrome
My website almost failed because I used to do everything by myself. I would not outsource or delegate anything because I didn’t believe anyone else could do it as good as I could. Boy, was that a mistake!
The sooner you outsource and delegate tasks, the better. One person can only do so much! Think of yourself as the Project Manager, instead of a do-it-yourselfer. You decide what must get done, and then you outsource most of those tasks to someone else to do. That is a much better approach than trying to do everything yourself.
The best use of your time is developing and driving the business and strategy. And not spending more time trying to remember how to do website updates, changes and tasks.
Source: Elwood Studio
# 9: Poor Keyword Research
When it comes to ranking in the search engines and SEO, keywords are everything. It’s vital that you do your keyword research BEFORE you start writing. You want long tail keywords that get searched for each month, but don’t have too much competition. Each article you write should be geared around one specific keyword. If you pick keywords that are overly competitive, your posts will never rank high in the search engines, which means that people won’t find your content.
Keyword research is a process of realizing the value of search terms and putting it against its competitiveness. The end goal, of course, is to help increase the traffic on your website.
Source: Curatti
# 10: Poor SEO
SEO is vital if you want to get a lot of traffic. No, you don’t need to hire a SEO company to help you. But, you need to have some inbound links. It’s important that you connect with other bloggers and webmasters. It’s important to have the right titles and tags in your articles. It’s important that your website is optimized. Your website should be mobile friendly. Many of these are basic, one time things you must do. You don’t want to do anything black hat and try to trick Mother Google, but you do want to have the basic SEO things mastered.
75% of Internet users do not click past the first page of search results—and without a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, you’ll never get there. Ever. You can’t just keyword-stuff either. Google’s algorithm is smarter than that now. Today, an effective SEO strategy is a complex, ongoing process, structured around quality. You need careful keyword research, detailed linking and tagging strategies, focused social media approaches, well-executed conversion stratagems and dedicated distribution methods.
Source: vital
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, these are the most common reasons why websites fail. Building a website is not for everyone. It requires patience, hard work and vision. It’s a minimum five to ten-year project.
Make a list of pros and cons before you get started blogging. Ask yourself if this is something you can really see yourself doing. Talk with a few other successful bloggers to see what they suggest. Whatever you do, don’t just jump into it.
What are your thoughts? Why do you think so many websites fail? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.