Ever Wondered What Challenges Other People With Their Web Site ?
Have you ever wondered what challenges are faced by other
webmasters and owners in the design and promotion of their
websites, well I certainly have and so I decided to try and find
out.
I created a short survey which asked the following questions:
1. How long have you been running a website ?
2. What challenges do you face right now with the DESIGN of your
website ?
3. What challenges do you face right now with the PROMOTION of
your website ?
4. What challenges do you think you'll face with your web
business over the next 12 months ?
5. What is your Number ONE single biggest problem in running
your web business ?
6. What is your 2ND single biggest problem in running your web
business ?
7. How experienced do you consider yourself with all the areas
of WEB DESIGN ?
8. How experienced do you consider yourself with the PROMOTION
of a web site ?
For most questions respondents were asked to choose their
answers from a list and could select as many answers as they
thought applied to them.
In answer to Q1. How long have they been running a website ?
27% answered less than 6 months.
18% said 6 to 12 months.
18% said 1 to 2 years.
37% had more than 2 years experience.
To answer Q2. What challenges do they face right now with the
DESIGN of their website, respondents were given 36 possible
answers to choose from.
The top 10 challenges respondents gave in DESIGN were, in
order:
1. Optimizing Web PAGES for Search Engines
2. Optimizing Web SITE for Search Engines
3. Choosing/adding a Link Directory
4. Adding a content management system
5. Tracking pages visitors view on their site
6. Finding content for the web site 7. Creating Images for web
pages
8. Choosing the right web hosting
9. Choosing/adding an Autoresponder 10. Adding and using RSS
News Feeds
To answer Q3. What challenges do they face right now with the
PROMOTION of their website, respondents were given 24 possible
answers to choose from.
The top 10 challenges respondents gave in PROMOTION were, in
order:
1. Getting more visitors from search engines
2. Writing content to attract search engines
3. Finding other sources to get more visitors
4. Gain/maintain more links to their web site
5. Get better Google Adwords results
6. How pages rank with search engines
7. Testing web pages for best changes to make
8. Creating better headlines for web pages
9. Getting better Adsense results
10. How/Which Search Engines to submit to
In regard to challenges over the next 12 months and the
number one and two single biggest problems in running a web
business, the common theme was getting enough traffic,
cheaply and finding the time to do everything.
On how experienced respondents considered themselves with all
areas of WEB DESIGN the majority felt competent but would like
to learn more.
When asked how experienced they considered themselves with
the PROMOTION of a web site the majority knew nothing or just
how to do the basics.
Conclusion
It was clear from these early results that issues with search
engine ranking and getting more traffic by what ever means were
among the greatest challenges for website owners in 2005. Other
specific problems were in creating content, managing and getting
links and finding the time to do it all. The majority of
respondents felt they knew little or just the basics about
website promotion.
It remains to be seen whether these results change as more
people complete the survey, since it's still ongoing. Not enough
responses have been collected to make these results
statistically sound, so if you would like to contribute to these
finding then you can take the short survey at the link below.
I will publish an update to these findings on my site. As a
thank you for completing the survey I have some good advice on
the site to help with the 3rd highest issue with web design that
of choosing an adding a link directory. I am also giving away
some free automated link directory management software.