Face it: You’re not perfect.

Of course, neither is anyone else.

You’re going to make mistakes. Just like the rest of us.

One day, you might make a mistake on your web site design. That mistake could possibly cost you the loyalty of hundreds of customers and thousands of dollars.

Yup – you  messed up. And it’s out there for the whole world to see.

The fallout from that mistake might tempt you to copy what others are doing with web sites for a similar customer or audience as yours.

Others will make mistakes and face the same temptation.

The problem with copying off one another is that innovation dies. Without innovation, nothing stands out and we’ll end up with a World Wide Web full of mediocrity. With no one site standing out, they all end up losing because people get bored and go off looking for something new.

You have to be that “new” for them.

Avoiding Mistakes
There are methods out there which will help you avoid those costly mistakes. Testing different web site designs via the “A-B Testing” method can give you invaluable data as to whether your idea works with your visitors. On line surveys, alone or combined with A-B Testing, can also give you great information and possibly new ideas.

If You Mess Up
Don’t sweat it. Yes, there will be some pain involved. But, learn to fall forward. Learn from your mistakes. Help others learn not to make the same mistake – I can’t stress enough how much you benefit in the long run from spreading good will.

Constant Renewal
Regular updates to the content within your current web site design is important, too. There is a bulk of research to show that regularly updating the content of your web site not only retains your current visitors, but also attracts new ones. Again, don’t be afraid to learn innovate. Get involved in blogging and social media. If you can’t or don’t write, find someone in your organization to do it for you; or better yet, teach you how to do it.

Tell us your story. Have you made a blunder on your web site you learned a lesson from? Share your experience with us.

photo credit: mobology

The problem stems from how IE8 processes JavaScript. I’m not up on all the technical details, but I do have a fix – albeit a temporary one: add the web site in question to the Compatibility View list. Here’s how to do it -

• Open Internet Explorer
• Click on “Tools” in the menu
• Click on “Compatibility View Settings”
• Enter the web page’s address in the “Add this website” box
• Click on the “Add” button
• Click on the “Close” button.

You may have to close and then reopen IE8, but once you add the web site to Compatibility View list, the site should work properly.

We put a note on the home page of our B2B web site to let our customers know about the fix. As I noted above, it’s meant to be a temporary solution.

The long term solution is to figure out why that part of your web site doesn’t work in IE8 and find a fix for your code which will work in IE8 as well as other browsers.

It all goes back to testing your web site in as many browsers as you can to make sure it works in all of them.