In the world we live in today, it’s quite normal for a business to have a website. However, there are some things that are rarely talked about – namely, everything you can do on your website to deteriorate your business. Here are some website mistakes that people often make and some steps you can take to fix them.
Your website is not mobile-friendly
Most people nowadays like to consume their content on their mobile devices. This can be a great opportunity for your website if you optimize it properly. Make sure that all of your content is easy to look at on mobile devices. If it’s not, a user might read it but will quickly move on to websites that are optimized and work well on their devices.
Loading speed is too slow
People don’t like waiting too long to load a page. According to study, anything that loads more than three seconds will often result in high website abandonment rates. To fix this, optimize your images, icons, and videos for best loading speed.
Mike Wallis, an SEO-specialist from Big Assignments, states, “Users are not really keen on waiting too long to get something that they need. This is why you need to take the steps towards optimizing your content so it doesn’t overwhelm your page. Test this, once you optimize it under simulated pressure to see what your loading speed will be like in high-pressure situations.”
Information is hard to find
If a user can’t find information on your company or contact information on the home page, then you know you are doing something wrong. According to a study, 64% of people state that the contact information on a homepage makes it easy to contact the company.
You have to be transparent and give them easy, actionable ways to find you and talk to you. Share your contact information openly and tell them the story of how your company came to be. Pictures of you and your team are also favorable.
Content is not of high quality
The content you share with your readers must be relevant to your niche, interesting, and engaging. You can hire writers, use writing services or write your content yourself. Offer usefulness, actionable tips and various topics that you think will be good for your readers.
Bad content that is packed with keywords will not improve your website’s ranking or popularity. According to a study, 59% of people stated that they wouldn’t trust a website or company if it had mistakes, errors, and typos. Also, Google doesn’t really like plagiarized content so it might be a good idea to use a plagiarism checker like Copyscape or Academized.
There is no CTA
You can’t expect your users to go where you want them to go on their own. You have to create visible, prominent buttons – calls-to-action in order to have them visit a page that you need them to visit. This will result in more sales and better engagement from your customers. The most important case studies show that the right CTA placement, its color and form, can increase the conversion rate up to 121%.
You can have a clear and colorful ‘buy now’ button that takes them to your landing page or if you want them to subscribe a clear ‘subscribe’ button. Remember to place this in a way that is not intrusive to brand new users since they have yet grown to trust you. Make sure to also offer rewards for new subscribers that are relevant to your niche and useful to your users.
There is no social proof
People need to know that you have worked with other people to know that you are a legitimate business. According to a study, nearly 70% of people who make online purchases look at reviews, testimonials, and other social proofs before buying anything. Without social proof anywhere on your website, it might be hard for them to make a decision to purchase from you.
Catherine Lovelace, a Business Developer at Paper Fellows, explains, “Use reviews, newspaper articles, stamps of approval or social media as your vessel to show your users that you are truly a good and helpful website. It might be hard for you to otherwise prove your worth to your potential users.”
Not enough text on your website
While having a lot of visual content is certainly good, not having enough text to balance that out is not. According to a study conducted by CognitiveSEO, content length affects your position on Google Rankings. Text is not only good for SEO but it also allows you to explain your mission and convey your message in a simple, yet effective way.
AcademAdvisor can help you create a brief, yet effective text to share on your pages. Keep in mind that longer content often means better quality and more space for optimization and therefore better Google Ranking. It can also mean making fewer website mistakes.
Making grammar and spelling mistakes
Research has shown that people particularly hate grammar and spelling mistakes and they scare them away. This happens because making these mistakes makes you seem unprofessional and like an illegal company that is only looking to steal their money. Since these mistakes are so easy to fix by using tools like State Of Writing or Via Writing, this can also make it seem like you don’t care enough to improve yourself.
Your website doesn’t have enough visual content
We previously stated that having less text is a bad thing but having only a few visual bits is too. According to statistics, infographics are 3x times more shareable and liked than any other type of content. People like to look at pictures, graphs, and infographics easily created. The good example is Oxessays with their 12 foreign phrases infographic which went viral within a few weeks.
This gives some new life to your content and your website will look a lot better this way. Keep in mind that it’s all about balance. Use enough pictures for the text to be entertaining but also enough text for the content to be informative.
You have a bad layout and design
Layout and design are important elements of your website. They are the first thing that your customers see and this is why they need to be optimal for best results.
Your layout, for instance, needs to be easy to look at and it needs to make sense. Design needs to be neutral and improve your readability – choose colors that complement your font and don’t make anything too bright.
Conclusion
Having a website can be tricky. There are so many website mistakes that you can make to ruin your brand’s image and that could cost you a lot of sales. But by following some of these steps, you can easily correct these website mistakes and have the results that you have always dreamed of.
Author Bio: Brenda Berg is a professional with over 15 years of experience in business management, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Consultant and tutor for college students and entrepreneurs at Australian help. She believes that constant learning is the only way to success. You can visit her personal blog at Letsgoandlearn.com