It’s simple to build a website these days with the advent of platforms like Wix and WordPress streamlining the process. But an exceedingly good website that fulfills its purpose and meets business goals is not so easy. Here are the top five website mistakes we find most often on business websites.
You’re not mobile-friendly.
Because more than half of global web traffic comes from mobile devices, ensuring your site is optimized for mobile viewing is absolutely necessary. It’s not enough to have users access your full site on their phone or tablet. Mobile browsing is an altogether different experience than full-screen browsing, and you want your consumers to enjoy both.
If you’re not yet mobile-friendly, check if your site can be optimized. Most all-in-one hosting platforms have an option to optimize your full-screen site with little redesign processing. If this option in not available to you, you may need to use a Mobile Website Builder and create a basic, side by side version of your site. The results will be basic, but at least it puts a tick in the mobile-friendly box.
Your content is thin.
Recent research shows that the most successful B2B websites had twice as much content as their average, lower-ranking competitors. The easiest way for any business to increase the number of pages they have is to expand their services pages. For example, if you are a dentist and offer dental cleanings, orthodontic appliances, and emergency care, create a page for each one. Don’t hide these services in a generic list. Just be sure to add enough keyword rich content to each new page to cast a wider net on Google as well as give your customers descriptions of exactly what they are looking for.
Speaking of content, be sure it is legible. Too often style gets in the way of strong content. Several factors that make your site difficult to read include: poor contrast between text color and the background, tiny fonts, using multiple fonts, or just cramming too many words on the page.
This is taking forever to load.
The longer a website takes to load, the more likely it is that the website will lose visitors, thereby losing to the competition. One-tenth of a second is the amount of time it takes for your customer to feel that the site is responding adequately or not. Ten seconds is the time you get to retain the viewers’ attention. If you content is too heavy in large photos or videos that take too long to buffer, your page’s load time may be adversely affected.
Furthermore, avoid Flash at all cost. Unless you want to take a trip back to the late ‘90s and the era of buffering video streaming, Flash is completely unnecessary. Most mobile devices do not support it, and customers will not stick around to download it to their computers just to view your site. Get rid of it. Most interactive websites now use a combination of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript instead. These are all available on most website-hosting platforms.
You have a website. Now what?
All companies with social and digital material need a content strategy. Whether you have a blog, are updating products and brands carried in your store, or have news to share with your online customers, it takes time to invest in creating and promoting your online content. Evidence shows that businesses that consistently create content will outrank their competitors.
If you have a blog, for example, how often do you post? Creating and sticking to a publishing schedule will engage your customers on a regular basis. Just remember your content should have a purpose. Consider your audience, include keyword-rich text, and aim for 500 words or more with visual content to further engage readers.
Additionally, make sure you’re answering your customers’ questions. There is no reason to read or revisit a website if its content does not provide valuable and relevant information. If your list of services is outdated, update it. If your company hires new staff, add them to your “About Us” page. Google and other search engines trust and pay more attention to websites that have unique and up-to-date content. This will help your company show up faster in search over a longer term.
Show me the traffic analytics.
In order to know if your website is answering customer questions, you will need to be tracking traffic. Neglecting to collect information that tracks how a website is used is forfeiting valuable data. Free or inexpensive tools that track visitors to your page are readily available in conjunction with most hosting platforms.
Make sure to use the data wisely to reinforce site strengths and improve weaknesses. Page views, for example, do not tell the full story of movement on a website, but session recordings of user clicks help to illustrate visitor behavior patterns throughout your website.
Having a fast, mobile-friendly, keyword-rich site is key to online marketing in the 21st century. Start optimizing your page today, and be sure to develop a long-term content strategy for the years ahead. Contact us to help you get started.
