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Your website is your best employee working for your business 24/7. Make no mistake, a poorly designed or unprofessional website design will damage your businesses brand and could be resulting in lost business opportunities. Research suggest that 75% of consumers admit that they judge a business’ credibility based on their website design. 79% of shoppers will not return to purchase from a slow-loading website. So let's explore some of the most common website mistakes, and how you can skillfully sidestep them?

WEBSITE MISTAKE #1: MOBILE & BROWSER OPTIMISATION

Android, iOS, smart phones, iPads, Laptops, Chrome, Internet Explorer…. the list goes on. With so many devices and screens sizes it can be hard to keep up. However, failing to optimise your website is a cardinal sin of the highest level. Your website must be optimized for every devices possible so that your best employee can be reached anywhere, on any device and at anytime.

Why?

• Today's generations use their mobile phones more that ever before, at least 57% Google searches that are performed via a mobile device. Don’t miss out this audience and search traffic.

• Google has shifted to “mobile first”. It prioritises great mobile websites and further rewards these website with a good search result ranking. Fail on mobile and you can say goodbye any chance of appearing in a first page search result.

How to avoid this website mistake?

Mobile-optimise your website for all devices!  Many website templates now offer mobile optimisation built into their theme. If you are building a custom theme, there are many SEO software’s and development testing tools that can quickly identify bugs and opportunities that need to be resolved.  

MISTAKE #2: WEB DESIGN INCONSISTENCIES

A cluttered website design can make a website overwhelming, difficult to navigate and hard to locate information. It’s important your website offers a seamless user experience and mirror’s your business branding through your design. If you’re a quirky, fun loving business, make sure this echoes throughout your website. A beautifully designed, easy to navigate website will turn into an effective lead generation tool for your website. You can never “over plan” when designing your website. You wouldn’t open a restaurant without creating a robust business plan. From its very inception, to its target market, promotion, launch and ongoing growth. Make sure you research and plan for every conceivable stage.

How to avoid this website mistake?

Test out your customer journey thoroughly. Ensure that your site is as easy to navigate and locate important information. Ask your trusted friends, family and customers for honest feedback. Compare your website to some websites of brands that you admire, what’s great about those websites? Many online website creation platforms offer beautifully designed templates at affordable prices and some are even free. No time? Hire a credible website design team to get the job done for you.

MISTAKE #3: SLOW-LOADING SITE

Page speed is an extremely significant ranking factor to be considered in your SEO strategy. You’re seconds away from either hurting your SEO or feeding it into the page one rankings.

How to avoid this mistake?

• Remove unnecessary plug ins or script on your website.

• Limit images on each page.

• Compress images.

Always test your speed. You can use Google Pagespeed Insights. It will provide you a quick gauge on any opportunities to improve your website page speed performance.

MISTAKE #4: DIFFICULT NAVIGATION

Difficult navigation is mostly due to a poor and inconsistent website design. However if you have a clean design and navigation is still difficult, you need to do complete further testing on your website. You can ask colleague or trusted clients for feedback to improve your site navigation.

MISTAKE #5: “CONTACT US” DETAILS ARE MISSING OR HARD TO LOCATE

Your contact us page and details are a direct link to the relevant departments within your business. Neglecting to have a detailed contact us page with “contact us” forms that work is a travesty.

How to avoid this mistake?

• Include your main contact information in the main header for easy access.

• Ensure phone numbers, have the “click-to-call” feature enabled on mobile devices. It will direct visitors to call the phone number provided.

• Make use of chat bots and install a chat box on your website.

Support your website’s contact us streams by engaging with and responding to customer enquiries immediately. If a visitor is satisfied you’re easily contactable and will promptly respond to their enquiries that will have peace of mind that you are fit for their job.

MISTAKE #6: STOCK PHOTOS

Stock photos are helpful when you might not have the budget for an exclusive photo shoot. However an overuse of stock standard images that might not resonate with your brand, may make user feel your website is not being genuine. Where ever possible, we recommend that you use your own high quality photos and images for a personal touch to your site.

MISTAKE #7: OUT-OF-DATE BUSINESS INFORMATION

As your business grows, a lot of updates may happen. Menu’s, emails addresses, phone numbers and business addresses can change. And if you forgot your site to update, you’ll miss out on potential traffic. Or worse a bad review. Everyone who views your contact information expects it to be correct. We’re an impatient generation and your customers will become frustrated quickly if they visit your site and are presented with incorrect information. Don’t damage your google street credibility and risk any impact to your SEO strategy.

MISTAKE #8: “SALESY” APPROACH

This is a cringe-worthy mistake that you must avoid. An overly “salesy” approach can scare customers away. It’s okay to advertise your product on your content occasionally, but on every piece of content 10 times a day? No. Your content should engage, excite and educate. Avoid pitching your products and try telling a story about your brand.

MISTAKE #9: CTA [CALL TO ACTION] MISSING IN ACTION

Don’t let your CTA go MIA. A simple “Learn more”, “Explore” or “Contact our friendly team to get started” will work. Just avoid neglecting to add one. The purpose of a CTA is to bring your visitors back to your website. Like “Here’s some relevant topics you must like to read” or “Explore this exclusive and limited offer here” or “create an account [it’s free]”. Usually it is recommended that the CTA is to be placed at the end of your content. 

MISTAKE #10: NOT MARKETING YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT 

Posting quality content is great. But what’s the point if no one knows about it, or see’s it right? I mean you wouldn’t pay for a billboard promoting your business in the middle of Antarctica, would you? After publishing new content, promote and market it on all of your social media steams. Let your audience know that there is something new! Make sure you only create relevant content that aligns with your brand and industry. If you’re a Digital Marketing Business, focus on Digital Marketing topics and subtopics don’t just go crazy and post everything else from beauty to pet tips as well. Keep it relevant. After all, you don’t want your visitors to think your site has been hacked by cats! What a Cat-astrophe that would be!

Need help designing a beautiful, user friendly, lead generating website and marketing strategy?

Avoid website mistakes and contact our expert team today and learn more about lead generating websites and marketing with impact!

Email: [email protected]

Visit us: 555 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Call: (03) 7018 7620 or 0418 967 352