Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. Below I’ve reflected on 3 ways I’ve sabotaged my websites in the past. Hopefully you won’t follow my example.

1. Completely redesign it – If you redesign your site from scratch, you’re probably throwing out the baby with the bathwater. No matter what your web design firm tells you, very few websites are so bad that it must be completely redesigned. When you do this, you end up distrupting features that worked perfectly fine just to fix features that didn’t. Instead, redesign your site incrementally around business objectives and customer needs, not the design whims of you or your company.
2. Do something drastic without testing it - I’d like to think that by now I could predict which features will increase conversion, but the truth is I still get it wrong – a lot. This is why testing is so crucial. It’s not fun to spend weeks developing something new only to have Google Website Optimizer tell you it actually hurt your conversion rate, but nonetheless it’s essential. Don’t sabotage your site by not testing major changes.
3. Forget first things  - Odds are your website has more than one conversion. In additon to your primary goal of getting a lead or a purchase, you might also want to get email subscribers, Facebook fans, or Twitter followers. These are all good things, but only if you remember first things first. If you keep adding buttons, ads, popups, and pages to support secondary goals, before you know it you’ve created unprioritzed, cluttered mess of a site. Don’t let your site become a Frankensite monster. Keep your first things first.

Now its your turn… in what ways have you unintentionally sabotage your website?

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