Really dumb web site issues

[AlisonMSmith]

If you have a business web site, make sure you don't make blunders that cost you tons of business. For example, today I was trying to buy some office products online, and typed in this:

reliable.com

It's an error page! Weird, I've ordered from them tons of times. So I type in:

www.reliable.com

Wow.

Now I admit, they have a really clunky, outdated site that is a pain to use (I just like their free promo stuff), but for heaven's sake, who are they paying to do their site? Someone who seems not to know even the basics.

That is a really expensive mistake.

Alison

[MLMDiva]

It's true. If you work from home or own your own business your website is EVERYTHING. People who think it's not important just don't know the truth!

Having a bad website really can cost you thousands of dollars over time! It's sad.

[Dennis Edell]

The difference between http://site.comand using the www is not necessarily their fault. It will come up with 2 different sites a lot of thetime.

This causes many problems for those that don't realize it. For one thing, this causes a lot of the duplicate content within Google, and the site owners don't even know it.

Iwon't go into the drawn out details, but the thing is, www is actually a sub-domain of the 'net.

[adshome]

Originally Posted by Dennis Edell

The difference between http://site.comand using the www is not necessarily their fault. It will come up with 2 different sites a lot of thetime.

This causes many problems for those that don't realize it. For one thing, this causes a lot of the duplicate content within Google, and the site owners don't even know it.

Iwon't go into the drawn out details, but the thing is, www is actually a sub-domain of the 'net.

1) No way, the difference between site.com and www.site.com isdefinitelytheir fault.

2) Google does NOT penalize you for having those 2 identical versions. Google only choose one of the versions. If you want to tell Google what version you prefer to appear in Google's listings, then you can do it if you have a WebmasterTools account with Google.Login, click on"Tools" and then on "Set the preferred domain".

[plainjanemom]

It is a 2 minute chore to sort this out in your .htaccess file, and if someone is doing business online there is no excuse for not taking care of it. That said, oh my gosh, I see stoopid mistakes like this out there every day. So sad! Of course, that just leaves more room for the rest of us who can do better

[AlisonMSmith]

Whose "fault" is it?

Dennis, this is a big office supply company that puts out multiple catalogs annually. They are, presumably, paying a webmaster pretty decent money to set up the site

If both URLs are not properly directing to their site, it's because their "webmaster" is clueless--as far as web professionals go. S/he shouldn't be in the business of offering web services, without this very basic knowledge. I'm stunned to think how many customers they lose by such a mistake.

The lesson for wahms? Test, test, test!

Alison

[Dennis Edell]

Unless rules have changed dramatically and recently, no, Google does not randomly pick one over the other. If they see both, they index both and this could get some in trouble.

This is why I wrote about having problems if they don't realize it. Many many site owners don't even realize the double worlds exist, and wouldn't unless they happen to stumble upon it as Alison showed can happen.

Yes there are several ways to fix it, and yes a company as big as reliable should probably have a webmaster that knows this; if they even care, some don't.

I'd venture to guess that nowadays the percentage of people that simply type site.com without the www is very low.

As for "stupid" mistakes and "easy fixes" go,I really hope y'all are referring to sites the size of reliable.....show me a newbie that even knows what .htaccess is, much less how to mess with it without doing serious damage LOL

Again, this doesnt include those that know and just dont care.

[LeisaWatkins]

Great advice Allison to test, test, test.

I'd ad: test frequently. One can test everything, have it run perfectly, and then something can go wrong. Scripts can become corrupt. So periodically checking out your website is good housekeeping.