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If your website mistakes are costing you business, don’t worry. Mistakes can be rectified. Most often than not, it’s just recognising what the problems are and then getting each one fixed as quickly as possible.

No one knows exactly how many websites are on the Internet but the milestone of 1 billion websites was first reached in September of 2014! Of these, less than 200 million are active and not all of those URLs will be websites (some will just be parked domain names). But, whatever the exact number, there is no doubt that there are millions & millions of websites and the numbers just keep on increasing.  So, just putting up a pretty website is not enough if you want to attract visitors to your site and then convert them into business.

Here are 5 of the biggest website mistakes to avoid when planning your new website or upgrading an existing site:

Website Mistake 1 – An overly creative, complicated design

Landing on a website with confusing navigation or that you can’t work out what it’s about, is probably the biggest mistake. Long creative introductions or videos that start immediately with either talking or music will also not impress anyone (especially if the person is surfing the net at work and is trying to keep it under wraps!).  Remember that your visitors’ time is precious and you need to follow the 8-second rule if they are to stay and look around your website.  Your visitor wants to know:

  • Why am I here (i.e. – What is your website about)
  • Why do I care (i.e. – What’s in it for me?)
  • What should I do now (i.e. – A clear call to action)

If it takes too long to work out what your website is about, you will have lost your visitor and they won’t return.  A simple, attractive design that follows the 8-second rule is what is required.

The most important information should be near the top of your Home page and make this information easy to read with simple headings, sub headings, bullet points, bold text and images or diagrams.

Website Mistake 2 – No search engine optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation is all about making sure that your website appears in relevant Internet searches for as many words or phrases that your visitors may use to find you.  Everyone wants to appear near the top of page 1 of Google for organic searches (these are free listings as opposed to paid listings).  But given the number of websites on the Internet, obviously everyone cannot appear on page 1.  However, the majority of people do not understand how the search engines work or what information they use to rank your website. The key to achieving Internet success is either to understand how this works or pay someone who does.   To just put up a website and hope for the best that your potential visitors and customers will find you, is a huge mistake.

Both “on-site” and “off-site” SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) should be utilised to help promote your website on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

On-Site SEO involves optimising website content and data and headings to maximise the visibility of a website to the search engines for your targeted keywords. These keywords should be derived after careful consultation and research.

Off-Site SEO essentially involves the creation of relevant links (both URL and anchor text) back to your website. Search engines place great importance on the quality and quantity of backlinks to a website.

Website Mistake 3 – Broken links, images and videos

A website is not something that goes up on the Internet and is never looked at again.  A website with broken links doesn’t give a good impression. This also includes videos that don’t play, images that have an incorrect path or forms that don’t open or link.  All will give your visitors the impression that you are not operating the kind of efficient business that they may wish to buy services or products from.  You need to log in to your site regularly and check that everything is working properly.  Even better if you are updating your content via blog posts, videos, case studies, portfolio or products regularly.

Website Mistake 4 -Not measuring and testing how your website is performing

Your website is an integral part of your marketing.  However, the majority of people fail to measure how their website is performing.  Google offers a free tool in Google Analytics so that all visitors coming to your website can be tracked. It gives information on how visitors have found you. They may have searched for your domain name directly, typed in keywords to a search engine or found you via social media pages.

Your Webmaster can insert some special code from Google Analytics onto your website. Then you will be provided with detailed data and statistics on website performance and customer usage.  Without this, how can you decide which areas of your website are working and which are not? Analytics reports can be used to review and improve the website, dictate future marketing strategies, and provide statistics on local and national market opportunities.

Website Mistake 5 -Not collecting visitors’ details to build a database

Many website owners believe that visitors will simply contact them via their contact page if they are interested. This is simply not the case. Your contact information should be prominently displayed including an interactive contact number on mobile devices.

All visitors to your site should be collected into your database so you can contact them at a later time for marketing purposes.  Not doing this is a huge website mistake that many make.  The money or business is in your database.

Give your website visitors something of value for free to encourage them to leave their details.  Then you have the opportunity to market to them in the future. Also important is to make sure you have a clear Privacy Policy on your website.  This will inform your visitors how you will be using their information.  You must also give them the option to unsubscribe from your database whenever they want.

Use different methods to capture details like a nicely designed pop up or optin section (or both!) You will then have a growing database of interested clients and potential clients you can market to with new offers and updates.

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Most website mistakes like the 5 in our blog post above can be rectified with some help from a good website design and development business.  My advice is to get a full audit as quickly as possible as you may have others that haven’t been pinpointed.

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Judith Shuttleworth

Judith Shuttleworth is the owner of HotsWots Digital and a Director of Open House ID, an app for real estate agents. We have a range of expertise in all aspects of digital marketing and provide personal customer service. Your success is our motivation.

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