I'm online for much of my business day, which means I get to visit many, many websites in the process of helping my clients learn how they get more clients online. I'm also asked to provide feedback about the effectiveness of websites, and as I specialize in working with owners of service businesses, I see several common website mistakes made over and over again by service companies.

If you want to get more clients from your website, here are the first 5 mistakes to avoid:

1. Business appearance as a nameless, faceless corporate entity. I just want to scream when I can't find any information on the person/people behind a company, and my preference is to be able to have a visual representation (photo) of the people with whom I'm about to do business. One of the key components to your success as the owner of a service business should be the quality of service you personally provide, whether you're a chiropractor, website designer, pest exterminator, accountant, or printer.

People don't do business with business cards or websites -- people do business with other people. How can someone get to know, like, respect and trust you in order to decide to do business with you when they can't peer behind the corporate image? I realize many smaller business firms employ this strategy to appear bigger than they actually are to their client base, but I prefer being able to pick up the phone or drop an email to someone I personally know within a company to help me solve my problem, rather than trying to penetrate a faceless corporate facade.

2. Lack of a clear call to action on the home page. Have you ever been to a website and been completely overwhelmed with all the directions you can go from the home page? I have, and I become so frustrated that I leave in short order. Or, perhaps you thought, "This business sounds like one I'd like to stay in touch with -- what do I do next?", and you can't find the answer to that question anywhere on the home page of the website. The most effective call to action you can have on your home page is to offer something for free (ebook, ecourse, newsletter, survey results, report, toolkit) that is so attractive to your target market that they will give you their name and email address to receive your offer.

Many times the call to action is to telephone or email the business for a free consultation. I think that call to action is effective to some degree, especially if someone is shopping for an immediate solution to their problem,. Overall, however, I think people want more time to make a decision about doing business with you in terms of determining your credibility and making a decision about whether or not they trust you before deciding to have a personal conversation with you.

Expecting someone to call you upon first meeting you (viewing your website) is not very realistic. However, if they've seen enough on your site to want a little more, there's a greater likelihood of them parting with a tiny bit of info (first name and email address) in order to get a better experience of you anonymously and without a great commitment. Once you have their contact information, they have become a prospective client and you can market to them as you would to any other prospect in your business.

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