I recently wrote an article about looking at your company through your customer's eyes. This couldn't be more important when it comes to your website. The reason? Because your website can attract customers that you never knew existed. It's a silent salesman working 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So take a look at your site. Is it warm and inviting, or is it chasing people away?

You can read many books and articles about website dos and don'ts. The obvious ones are avoiding large graphics, not having misspelled words, no broken links, etc. But I briefly want to give you a list of my website pet peeves. These are just some of the things that drive me crazy when I visit a site.

1. My first pet peeve is when music or audio automatically starts on the home page. Not only does it take extra time to load the page, but it's also shocking when I'm surfing late at night and am suddenly blasted with this un-welcomed sound. So please, if you have music or some sort of audio message, let the visitor decide whether it plays or not.

2. Type is all centered with different sized fonts. Nothing looks more amateurish than a site like this. It basically says 'I don't have time to create a nice clean layout so I'll appear to put some thought into my design by centering everything. Oh yeah, I also need to make sure people see certain points about my services so I'll make those words really big.

3. If there's anything that will sell more aspirins, it's a website that has text laying on top of a busy background. Unless you're trying to create a game where your visitors need to decipher a code or your site comes with a pair of 3D glasses, just use a plain background. Preferably black text on top of white.

4. Flash intros. What can I say. I'm not a fan. The only thing I'm looking for when I see a flash intro is the skip button. Yeah, flash intros look cool (once) but after a while, they become quite annoying. Especially if it's a site I visit frequently and have seen it many times already. I don't think your customers will be saying to themselves, 'I really like this agent, but if they had a flash intro to the site, I'd definitely hire them'. Please, get your visitors to the meat of your site as soon as possible. Don't delay them at the front door.

5. Photos scattered all over the place. Just like in a magazine or newspaper article, photos are used to enhance the information. They are also laid out in a pleasing manner, not thrown in at random.

6. Ever go to a site where each individual page has it's own look and feel? I have and it always makes me think that I'm visiting entirely different sites. Think of your website as part of your brand. Keep your layout and graphics consistent throughout your site. It will be much easier to navigate and will make your company recognizable.

7. Pop-ups. Enough said.

Those are 7 of many pet peeves I have when it comes to visiting websites. By no means am I a website design expert, but I would think that I represent the majority of the people out there who feel the same way. So please check your site to see if any of these elements exist. If so, either take the time for a redesign, hire a professional, or use a real estate website service to do the job right. Believe me, it will be well worth the time and effort. You'll look more professional and you'll get new customers that you never knew existed.

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For more marketing and promotional ideas, visit www.AgentPromotion.com.

Mike is a real estate agent who's the marketing director for his real estate team. He specializes in producing creative marketing materials for both online and offline advertising.