It takes more than just having a website to make the Internet work for your business. Competition is now more fierce than ever as more and more small businesses jump on board with online presence. Time and time again i see the same fundamental website mistakes being made. It really does pay to seek out a professional web designer to ensure your website is actually working for your business. In this article i will divulge our top 10 website mistakes that your competitors already know about.
1. Poor design and functionality
Your website must not only be presentable but also focus on helping visitors quickly meet their goals when visiting your website. Stay clear from flash animation, music, splash pages, excessive graphics. People want information quickly, and do not want to be bothered everytime they visit your website with a flash intro or are struggling to find they information they need.
2. No clear website strategy
Your website should be focused on either generating genuine enquires or selling online. Years ago people thought a website was only meant to make them look more professional, nowadays a website is used to generate profits for a small business. If your website is not focused on driving a particular action then why bother having a website at all ?
3. Weak branding
A website is your online identity, therefor you must clearly communicate your brand attributes, benefits and values as your would your offline presence. It should also clearly communicate your point of difference from your competitors.
4. Poor website copywriting
Your language and image you use online should be for your target market. Not yourself, not your friends. Your website will have a greater chance of resonating its message if its specifically written for your target market. Keep industry jargon to a minimum.
5. No call to action
So many websites have content but with no specific call to action. It is important that website visitors take some type of action when they visit your website, whether it be to sign up for a newsletter, purchase a product, or make an inquiry.
6. Not collecting email addresses
Every visitor who leaves your website without sharing at the very least their name and email address is an opportunity lost. Provide visitors an incentive to signup on a mailing list by offering a special report, tips and tricks, a free gift. Even thou you may not make a sale at this point, having this information is considered a lead and a potential client.
7. Not optimising your website for search engines
There is no point in having a website if it cannot be found on the internet. This is much like having a house but not being listed in any directories, it will be much harder to locate you. In order for your website to be found easier on search engines such as Google you will need to invest in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
8. Not regularly updating your website
Google loves websites that have fresh content on a regular basis, it triggers Google to visit your website more often and also means that the likely hood of your content is going to be ranked higher in the search engine results. Having fresh content also means your website will not be stagnant and will keep interest in existing and new website visitors.
9. Not tracking website performance
So how do you know how many vistors you get a day a month a year ? How do you know what pages are visited more than others ? Installing tracking software such as Google Analytics will allow you to do this and much more. One purpose of using tracking software is to measure the success of campaigns you run, or also to measure the success of a change you made to the website. This is also called conversion optimisation.
10. Your website not being mobile friendly
It is now safe to say that the chances of your website being viewed on a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet is going to be very high. As more and more people adopt the micro technology and wanting information right away they will turn to a device they carry with them most of the time to search for information, products or services. Have you checked your website on a mobile device to see what it looks like ? There are now newer ways of building website that are Mobile Responsive, meaning that you can have one website that will automatically adjust itself depending on what device it is being viewed on. This guarantee’s you that your website will be viewable to a wider audience and not just desktop’s and laptop’s.
Menkom are on the forefront of designing beautiful, functional websites. Call us today to discuss your requirements or if your interested in getting a quote please fill in our request a quote form.
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