Have you ever wondered what challenges are faced by other webmasters and owners in the design and promotion of their websites, well I certainly have and so I decided to try and find out.

I created a short survey which asked the following questions:

1. How long have you been running a website?

2. What challenges do you face right now with the DESIGN of your website?

3. What challenges do you face right now with the PROMOTION of your website?

4. What challenges do you think you'll face with your web business over the next 12 months?

5. What is your Number ONE single biggest problem in running your web business?

6. What is your 2ND single biggest problem in running your web business?

7. How experienced do you consider yourself with all the areas of WEB DESIGN?

8. How experienced do you consider yourself with the PROMOTION of a web site?

For most questions respondents were asked to choose their answers from a list and could select as many answers as they thought applied to them.

In answer to Q1. How long have they been running a website?

27% answered less than 6 months.
18% said 6 to 12 months.
18% said 1 to 2 years.
37% had more than 2 years experience.

To answer Q2. What challenges do they face right now with the DESIGN of their website, respondents were given 36 possible answers to choose from.

The top 10 challenges respondents gave to DESIGN were, in order:

1. Optimizing Web PAGES for Search Engines
2. Optimizing Web SITE for Search Engines
3. Choosing/adding a Link Directory
4. Adding a content management system
5. Tracking pages visitors view on their site
6. Finding content for the web site
7. Creating Images for web pages
8. Choosing the right web hosting
9. Choosing/adding an Autoresponder
10. Adding and using RSS News Feeds

To answer Q3. What challenges do they face right now with the PROMOTION of their website, respondents were given 24 possible answers to choose from.

The top 10 challenges respondents gave to PROMOTION were, in order:

1. Getting more visitors from search engines
2. Writing content to attract search engines
3. Finding other sources to get more visitors
4. Gain/maintain more links to their web site
5. Get better Google Adwords results
6. How pages rank with search engines
7. Testing web pages for best changes to make
8. Creating better headlines for web pages
9. Getting better Adsense results
10. How/Which Search Engines to submit to

In regard to challenges over the next 12 months and the number one and two single biggest problems in running a web business, the common theme was getting enough traffic, cheaply and finding the time to do everything.

On how experienced respondents considered themselves with all areas of WEB DESIGN the majority felt competent but would like to learn more.

When asked how experienced they considered themselves with the PROMOTION of a web site the majority knew nothing or just how to do the basics.

Conclusions

It was clear from these early results that issues with search engine ranking and getting more traffic by what ever means were among the greatest challenges for website owners in 2005. Other specific problems were in creating content, managing and getting links and finding the time to do it all. The majority of respondents felt they knew little or just the basics about website promotion.

It remains to be seen whether these results change as more people complete the survey, since it's still ongoing. Not enough responses have been collected to make these results statistically sound, so if you would like to contribute to these finding then you can take the short survey at the link given below.

I will publish an update to these findings on my site. As a thank you for completing the survey I have some good advice on the site to help with the 3rd highest issue with web design that of choosing an adding a link directory. I am also giving away some free automated link directory management software.

Tony Simpson, has 5 years in the trench experience of Website Design, Promotion and Optimization. He provides advice & product reviews at Web Page Add Ons to Make Automation of Your Website Work for You.

If you would like to contribute to these finding then you can take the short survey at: Web Site Challenges 2005