Top Five Most Common Website Mistakes
So, I visit Site Feedback on a daily basis, particularly looking for newbie websites.
I believe that if you are making mistakes that could affect your future success, it is better to find out at an early stage when it is still relatively easy to fix.
Let's take a look at the most common errors I see time and time again.
No Affiliate Disclosure
Having an affiliate disclosure is a legal requirement.
You must let your visitors know that you will earn a commission if they purchase anything through your links.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/affiliate-disclosur...
Copied Content
All the content on your website should be original and written in your own words.
And duplicate content doesn't just mean copying an entire article.
Increasingly, I have seen numerous examples of "stitched content" where people have taken paragraphs from several different websites and added them together to make one post.
Google can see exactly what you have done.
Images That Are Not Copyright Free
You cannot simply copy and paste images from Google or other websites, and definitely not from Pinterest!
Images have to be copyright-free, or you need to have written permission from the owner, or they need to have been taken by yourself or supplied by your affiliate program.
Adding a caption that says "courtesy of Samsung" etc does not give you the right to use them.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/chrystopherj/blog/free-image...
Breaking Amazon's Rules
Amazon has the lowest commissions and the strictest rules.
The most commonly broken rules include using their star ratings, or quoting their customer reviews, or choosing your own images from the product page, or not having the correct affiliate disclosure, or mentioning the product price.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/dianescorpio/blog/welcome-to...
Poor Product Reviews
A review should be exactly that - a personal in-depth review of the product, not just a list of its features that can easily be found elsewhere.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/dianescorpio/blog/your-produ...
I hope this helps, and if you are making any of these errors, then please take steps to correct them.
Recent Comments
25
Hi Diane,
Under breaking Amazon rules, what does "choosing your own images from the product page" mean? I thought in Kyle's training we learned that as an Amazon affiliate, we could use their images when writing a review.
I'm already in the process of fixing the other Amazon rule I was breaking lol
Thanks for looking out for all of us newbies!
Lynn
Hi - Amazon only supplies you with one image of the product through the Site Stripe bar, and you have to insert it using the HTML code. You can't pick other images from the product page and copy and paste them.
One clear way of looking at it, is that you shouldn't have any Amazon images in your Media Library, because that means you must have copied and pasted them.
Hmm,
I better stop quoting you Diane. LOL
I think images are likely the most often the bad boys.
I find a lot of my photos on free sites but at times a particular picture is hard to find, however any place that is questionable usually says clearly that the item is copyrighted or may be so and if that is the case I look elsewhere.
A little extra time is worth it..
Steve
It's interesting how we all have our quirks...You hang out at Site Feedback.. grin.
Diane, you are really good at spotting out those copied entries. I think that is one of your super powers, Diane....grin.
It's amazing that the missing affiliate disclosure page, copied content and improper images are the top 5 mistakes.
To me, that means people are not following closely the training, because all of those mistakes are covered.
Rudy
Thank you for this valuable information. Diane.
And your giving feedback on newbie websites is incredible.
See more comments
Hi Diane,
This post is helpful while looking through Site Feedback.
I provide feedback on other people’s websites, and I see some of these problems every now and then. It’s good for other members to know when they’re asking for feedback on their websites.
A great post and reminders to make note of- as always.
Regards,
Eric