Are you making one of these website mistakes for your business?
Honestly, probably. The emergence of user-friendly website builders means there are more people than ever building websites with little to no coding skills or web design experience.
Don’t get us wrong– we love a bootstrapping entrepreneur. But we see plenty of website mistakes that are seriously costing businesses in terms of traffic and sales.
Luckily, these common website mistakes we see businesses make are not that hard to fix. If you’re willing to invest some time in learning about design principles, sales psychology, and the greater digital landscape, you’ll be able to implement small changes that have a big impact on your business.
Of course, it never hurts to have a little outside help. Check out our web design services if you could use a reliable guide to help you build and maintain a productive website for your business.
Top 7 Website Mistakes We See Businesses Make
It’s all about you
No one can blame you for thinking your website should be about your business. You may feel the pressure to communicate everything you think a prospective client should know about your business and what it can offer them.
In reality, no one is visiting your site because they are interested in your business’s history or team biographies. They visit because they have a problem they need solved, and they’re trying to decide if you’re the one to do it.
By making your website all about you, you’re missing the chance to show that you really get your audience. You understand their problem and you know how to fix it.
By focusing on your audience, you flip on that little switch in their brain that says “listen up, this is relevant to us.” They’re less likely to speed-scroll through your website or click the back button. Why would they? You’re talking about their favorite person– themselves. And you’re laying out a clear path for how you can help them.
Inadequate calls to action
A call to action (or CTA) tells your website visitor what action to take. It might be a contact form, a sign-up button, or a “book now” button in your navigation menu.
Ideally, your website will offer two clear paths that your prospect can take:
- If they’re ready to move forward– to purchase, contact, or schedule an appointment– that option should be readily and clearly available to them.
- If they’re not quite ready to move forward– perhaps they need a little more time to warm-up– they should be able to make a lesser commitment. This often comes in the form of an email newsletter sign-up or downloadable resource. (Like our free social impact checklist.)
Providing your visitors with two CTA options is a great way to meet them where they’re at in their customer journey. No one is going to be pressured into making a purchase if they’re not yet ready. At the same time, someone who is ready needs to feel confident that there is a clear pathway through which they can move forward.
Clunky, disorganized UX
UX is your website’s user experience– the experience they have interacting with your website. You want your website’s UX to be intuitive, inviting, and enjoyable.
Too many websites try to do way too much. Their navigation menu is packed with buttons and dropdowns. Page layouts are chaotic and confusing. There isn’t a clear “customer journey” for the visitor to take– for example, from the homepage, to the about page, to purchase.
Many clients who come to us with shoddy UX know their website is a mess, but they’re not sure how to fix it. Others feel strongly that all content is equally important and their users need immediate access to everything at once.
The problem is, if everything is important, then nothing is. Your visitors won’t spend precious time navigating through pages and dropdowns to find what they need. Would you rather have weak traffic dispersed over 15 random pages, or more traffic concentrated on your top 3?
Navigating your website should be a treat for your visitors, not a chore. They should be able to find what they need quickly, while also having options to explore areas they might not know they’re interested in, like a company blog.
Not optimized for search
Search engine optimization (or SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website to rank in search results for targeted keywords. One of the most common website mistakes we see is not optimizing a website for search.
Social media may get all the attention, but your most valuable website traffic will ultimately come through organic search traffic. If someone searches “yoga studio in Sacramento, CA” or “vintage clothing shop in Austin, TX”– the websites that appear are more likely to get the business.
SEO isn’t a one-and-done deal. It’s an ongoing process that requires (among other things) technical maintenance and strategic content development. But you have to start somewhere. Implementing at least the basics of SEO best practices is a great start.
How to SEO goes beyond the scope of this article, but there are infinite free resources you can utilize to study up on the topic. Take the time to acquaint yourself with the basics of SEO, or work with a company like Wholeheart that can help.
Ignoring analytics
In the age of analytics, neglecting to take advantage of the vast amount of data our websites can provide is just plain silly. Why wouldn’t you want to know which website pages are most popular? Which pages people are staying on the longest? From which pages are people exiting your site?
Understanding your website analytics allows you to maximize what’s working and fix what’s not. Analytics also provide key insights into your audience demographics that allow you to make smart business decisions based on data– not a hunch.
Analytics get complex quickly, but today’s tools provide basic overviews that are basic enough for anyone to understand. Make sure Google Analytics is installed in your site, and learn to navigate and understand at least the basics.
Not having a blog
One of the most commonly overlooked website mistakes is neglecting to have a blog. No, blogs are not outdated or limited to food and fashion. A strong business blog will help you attract website traffic, demonstrate your expertise, and build relationships with your audience.
Take the blog post you’re reading right now. At the very least, this post is attracting relevant website traffic, whether from social media or organic search. It’s also demonstrating our expertise in web design and indirectly promoting our web design services.
It’s unlikely someone will read one blog post and decide to work with us, but they may read a series of posts over time and reach out when they’re ready.
Not having a blog isn’t just a website mistake– it’s a business mistake. There are plenty of statistics supporting the business value a blog can create. Paired with a strong content strategy, having an active blog on your website can generate real results for your business.
It’s just ugly!
Perhaps the most common website mistake we see is the website just being plain ugly. Sure, beauty is subjective– to an extent. But there are basic design principles that professionals have learned and know how to put into practice.
People who use website builders have a tendency to think they’ll get a perfect website out of the box. In reality, no drag-and-drop function will replace having a trained eye and more formal understanding of design principles.
Not only should your web design be appealing, it should be appealing to your target audience. A company serving 20-year-old female college students will have a very different web design than one serving 55-year-old businessmen. Knowing your audience and their preferred aesthetic is critical to giving the best presentation of your brand.
Need help fixing (or avoiding) these website mistakes?
When you’re busy running your business, you don’t always have time to build and maintain a productive and profitable website. That’s where we come in.
Whether you’re launching a website from scratch or are in need of an overhaul to your current site, our web design services will get you set up with the foundation your business needs to succeed.