Are you making a common website mistake?
Having a well designed, easy to use website is probably the simplest way for your business to make a great first impression on potential clients. For more and more people, your website will be the primary interaction prospects will have with your business. You want to make sure that your website is converting as many of those visitors as possible into loyal customers.
The best way that you can do that is by avoiding these common website mistakes.
Slow website.
One of the chief reasons people get frustrated with a website is if it is taking too long to load. Any website that takes more than a few seconds to load is considered slow, and will likely drive away potential customers. You can easily check the speed of your website for free using free tools such as Pingdom or Google Analytics. If you find that your page is running too slowly, Google also has a PageSpeed Insights tool that can help you to address some of those problems.
Website not optimized for mobile.
As of 2015, the majority of web users are accessing your site through a mobile device rather than a traditional web browser. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who is familiar with the increasingly common site of a room full of people staring at their phone screens. What this should tell you is that it is essential that your website has a responsive design, meaning that it adapts to mobile screens. Many people do not have the patience to drag and zoom vainly in an attempt to read your unresponsive site on their phones when they can easily move on to a competing site.
No SEO strategy.
Understanding the key concepts of search engine optimization can significantly boost traffic to your site and give you an edge on your competitors. Be aware of what keywords drive users to your site and use them regularly throughout your content. Be sure it isn’t distracting to your readers though. Remember that they come first. The titles and metadata of each page is especially important for including relevant keywords. Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools are invaluable resources for monitoring and tweaking the SEO of your site.
No call to action.
Including a call to action on your site is the single best way to spur visitors to directly engage with your business. Whatever your goal is for your customers, tell them directly. Whether you want them to call you, sign up for an email list, follow you on social media, or place an order online, your chances of a successful transaction are much higher if you state ask visitors to your site directly.
Home-made design.
Make sure your the design of your site is appealing. The easiest way to do this is by breaking up large chunks of text with multimedia elements. People are drawn subconsciously to pictures, gifs, videos, and graphs. It is worth to invest in the services of a professional web designer if you find that aesthetics aren’t your thing.
Choosing the wrong platform.
You should have control over all of the basic functions of your site. This means that you should be able to edit it easily, rather than paying a big chunk of change every time you want to alter something. We recommend the WordPress platform because it is easy to use and robust.
No idea about your website statistics.
Additionally, you should have a basic knowledge of and access to the relevant statistics about your site. You can’t improve your site if you don’t know what you are doing well and what needs work. We recommend using Google Analytics since it is free and easy to use.
Outdated content.
Finally, the most common of the website mistakes that people make is not updating it regularly. If you have gone more than a week without adding something to your site, you are probably not paying enough attention to it. Make sure all important information is up to date and consider including regular blog posts or other content to give visitors a reason to come back for more.
photo credit: Depression