Are you treating your small business website like it's your personal website? Avoid some of the mistakes many small mom-and-pop businesses make with their websites.

Do you:

-- display family pictures that are unrelated to your business? -- link to all of your personal favorite websites? --have cutesy graphics that appeal to you but don't relate to your business? --have cutesy "web tricks" just because you think they're "fun" or "cool"? --have "shout-outs" to friends and family?

There's nothing wrong with adding "personality" to your website. But if you're like most small business owners, your website has a job to do -- grow your business. Don't get in its way or spend effort on things that don't help it achieve that goal! How does your website grow your business? By solving your customers' problems and getting them to trust you enough to give you their time or money.

Trust and Credibility

Some websites need to be "fun" because that's what their target audience is looking for. But every business website needs to be professional—even fun or crafty ones. A professional image lends credibility to everything you proclaim on your website. It's all strangers have to go by.

How Do Users Detect an Unprofessional Website?

By comparison to other websites that are considered professional. And the more web-savvy the user, the more they can tell. What are the signs? Let me put the question back to you. Have you ever seen an unprofessional

...business card? ...print ad? ...TV commercial?

How could you tell? Over-used clip-art graphics. Graphics or text that don't relate to the business. Obvious advertising "tricks". Elablorate, hard-to-read fonts. Too many colors. Too cutesy. Too trite. Too many exclamation points. Etc., etc.

How much trust did you have in the business? Were you motivated to give them your business?

Bottom Line

If you're seriously looking to grow your small business, remember that your business website is not built for your personal enjoyment. That's what personal websites are for. If you're really not all that interested in making a profit, I would (as would the IRS) classify your business as a "hobby".

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