While a website is a modern-day essential for businesses, no matter the size, having a website is only half the battle. Why? Because a website can do just as much harm to your business if it hasn’t been created correctly.
Since your website often gives consumers their first impression of your business, making sure your website is designed and built correctly will play a vital role in your success.
It can be easy to find lots of useful information about what makes a good website design, but it can sometimes be more helpful to know what common mistakes you should avoid when creating your business website instead.
So, if you’re in the planning stages of getting your business online, we’ve compiled some common mistakes that you should always try to avoid when creating a website.
Confusing your visitors
The vast majority of people who visit your website will be looking for a specific product or service – they will want to know whether you’re able to provide them with what they want straight away. Time is of the essence, and you only have a few seconds to let your visitors know who you are and what you offer.
Don’t overcomplicate your home page with lots of pointless information; doing so will only deter visitors and result in them bouncing back to the search engine and looking somewhere else. Try to keep things simple and display essential information about your business clearly.
Making it hard for people to get in touch with you
Once visitors know who you are and what you do, when wanting to go ahead and invest in your business, they will need to know how to contact you. So, make it easy for them to do so by having a contact page and clear Calls to Action (CTAs) to get in touch.
If you aren’t making it easy for website visitors to contact your business, they’ll eventually head elsewhere, even if they like your products. And if they go elsewhere, they’re most likely to end up with one of your competitors instead.
With a couple of simple fixes, they could have been your customers. Never overlook the importance of clearly displaying your business contact information and allowing people to get in touch easily.
Not Balancing Mobile & Desktop Experiences
Mobile devices like smartphones changed how people browse the internet. It’s a fact. Today, more than 50% of people who will be browsing search engines for products and services will be doing so on a mobile device. However, not all website designs work effectively and efficiently on a smartphone, and if yours does not, you stand to lose a lot of potential business.
Not only is a website that doesn’t work on a mobile device difficult and frustrating to use, but it will also reflect poorly on your company – and both are likely to put your customers off. Why? Because having a website that isn’t optimised for mobile and desktop implies that you don’t care about all of your potential customers.
Overlooking the importance of load speed
Frequently overlooked by new businesses, your website’s load speed can make or break your business. As mentioned above, time is of the essence – if your website takes a really long time to load, it is highly likely that people won’t even wait around to see what you have to offer.
Google confirmed page speed was a ranking factor all the way back in 2010, so this is not a new phenomenon. Ideally, you should try to ensure that your website can load within three seconds (as you can see in that video, anything after two seconds has a negative effect on your page), so keep an eye on any add-ons, pictures and videos that can slow down the load speed.
You can test your own load time using a wide variety of tools (we use Google’s, so that’s why we’ve linked it). Make sure you test it regularly and especially after making any significant updates to your page.
Designing a website with no previous experience
There are several different ways to design a website from scratch if you have no experience, you might want to think twice. It isn’t always as easy to create something that is both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly toom – if you’ve never done it before, do you want to experiment on a website for your business?
You can save yourself a lot of time and hassle by turning to a web design company, and having a professional create your website isn’t always extortionate either. More often than not, it is still worthwhile requesting the assistance of an expert.
Forgetting about your website or not updating your website regularly
Even though this isn’t necessarily to do with the creation of a new website, it is undeniably worthwhile knowing. Once your website is live and it is starting to bring in new business, you can’t just forget about it. Business owners who fail to update their website regularly with helpful and useful information will end up coming across as careless.
Visitors may even assume that your business is no longer operating and look elsewhere for the services/products they need. Of course, displaying out of date information can cause a whole host of additional problems too.
How to create a good website for your business
No matter whether you have a physical storefront or not, it is essential to ensure that your website reflects your business and what you have to offer in the best possible light. Now that you’re aware of some of the most common website mistakes made by companies, you can avoid making them too, and ensure that you aren’t losing any customers simply because your website isn’t good enough.
If you’re searching for a company that can assist you with creating an excellent website for your business, get in touch with TheMillCreek.net today. We specialize in small business web design and pride ourselves on helping local and family-run businesses get online.
We will help you to create a multi-page, mobile-friendly website gives you an online presence and all the tools you need to succeed online.
If you don’t have much time to build their online presence, much money to spend on digital advertising or don’t want to navigate the complexity of what it means to be online today, we can help.
