So what do you want your business website to say about you? Because it says a lot. It tells your visitors if you’re a professional, organized, knowledgeable business owner, or incompetent, slacker, just throw things to the wall and see if it sticks — kind of person.
You want to be professional, organized and knowledgeable.
Without a doubt, visitors take just 3 seconds to mole over if you’re the one for the job. That’s all the time you have. Click and scroll or click and exit.
Why First Impressions Matter Online
Have you ever walked into a brick and mortar store and the lighting was inviting, the aroma in the air was soothing, the apparel was organized into sections? I’m going to say you probably have had this type of experience at some point. This is what your online store needs to provide. Only you can’t activate the physical aroma, the lighting, the visual of organized apparel — so to speak.
You have organization in your content, navigation, and relatable information answering what visitors are looking for. This is how you will set yourself apart in the online dimension. A saying I’ve cultivated is don’t become another abandoned and random in the abyss. Get found and get optimized.
A website missing optimization will land you in the abyss even if your site is beautiful and visually appealing. No clicks. No conversions. Just abandoned traffic, if any traffic at all.
Therefore, it’s extremely important your business’s website is checking all the boxes to attract traffic, convert visitors into customers, and the trust that lands long-term business.
Your Website Is Your Digital Storefront
This is where your traffic needs to convert into real life customers. Even if your website isn’t an e-commerce website it doesn’t mean it’s not a storefront. It’s the representation of your business and what your business has to offer to your potential customers.
When it comes to a business website, instead of apparel merchandise organization, you need website structure, SEO foundations, easy-to-navigate pages.
How are your pages organized? Do you have internal linking to other relevant pages? Is your navigation easy to understand and use?
If the answer is — I don’t know, then you could be a random and abandoned site.
So, how do you make sure your digital storefront is optimized and structured? Well let’s dive into it and explore what you could be doing wrong so we can fix it.
The Most Common Website Mistakes That Drive Visitors Away
Starting your business website can be exciting and once launched, it can be a twiddle-your-thumb waiting for the customers to fly in. But — if you’re making these mistakes… you can be sure they are blasting away, not toward, and that’s if they even found you.
Mistakes can even be what’s hold you back from being found, is your site answering their questions and instilling trust? Do you have the right CTAs in place? How is the checkout or contact page?
The Top 10 Mistakes Made To Business Websites
Let’s talk about the top 10 most common mistakes made when creating a business website and figure out how to keep your business’s website out of this top ten list!
Cluttered Layouts
You want to make sure you’re covering all the grounds to your site but it turns into a hot mess. No direction. No organization. Content, images, information — scattered. Nothing seems uniformed and a visitor trying to find the information they seek is an impossible jumble. So what do they do? They backpedal outta there fast to find someone who will offer them the information they seek and buy with them.
Poor Mobile Experience
Let’s be real — 9 outta 10 of us are using our phones for on-the-go information. Googling, clicking, and finding someone who can solve their problem. But if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you can bet they are off again. I’ve done it myself and I’m sure you have too. A website that looks like it belongs in a desktop browser, cut-off images, and having to scroll right and left to read a sentence. This just isn’t going to convert. They will leave and never look back.
Slow Loading Times
This is another vital piece to the puzzle. You can’t expect someone to wait for your page to load. It’s never ending loading times kills conversion. There’s the long wait times to speak to people over the phone that drives us crazy, let alone a website that isn’t loading. Nobody has time for that these days. Attention spans are shorter, our problems never go away and we need answers — now.
Broken Links
The 404 pages are not attractive. The clicking and nothing happening, is not going to convert. Apparently your website isn’t worth making sure the backend highway to the next page, you are creating traffic jams. And this time they don’t have to wait in it. They will just exit your page and move on. Don’t lose potential customers over broken links. Always verifying all links, is necessary to make sure traffic has somewhere to go. No jams.
Hard-To-Find Information
Okay, maybe you have the links working, loading time is great, mobile experience — check, and your layout is working. But, your information is scattered, visitors can’t find the answers they need to solve their problem, or better yet, hire the person to solve it. Having hard to find information is awful and avoidable. Proper organization goes a long way. Your website should look like your 12 year-old bedroom. It needs to be organized and flowing, helping each visitor glide right to where they need to be.
Too Much Text With No Structure
This is just as bad as hard-to-find information. Maybe the information is right there but no structure makes a skimming eye exhausted. Your visitors have enough exhaustion in their day. Don’t add to it! Having the proper organization throughout every page, header, paragraph, and CTAs are necessary to convert. If your website looks like a jumbled mess of words, nobody is reading that. So nobody will hire you.
SEO That Is Non-Existent Or Drowning Your Site
SEO, search engine optimization, is an organic strategy that helps drive traffic to your website. But it’s more than that too. SEO adds a layer of much needed organization but also helps Google and other search engines know what you’re even about. Keywords play a factor in SEO. So when people start typing and searching, search engines know who to show. Everyone has a problem. And we all need solutions. Every business goal should be to identify the problem and offer realistic solutions — and that’s what the search engines are offering too. So making sure your website is SEO optimized can make you or break you. This also means don’t cram keywords in either. It’s not good, it’s added clutter and makes your site difficult to read.
No Clear Call-To-Action
What are you telling your visitors to do? Nothing? Then you’ll get nothing…
Making clear CTAs tell your visitors what the next step is. Especially when they are ready to move to the next step but the step is nowhere to be found. They are interested, but ghosted. What do you think they’ll do next? If you said leave — you are correct. They reached as far as they could go because that’s where you left them. Without direction, people will leave.
Talking Only About Yourself
It’s great to get your mission out there and who you are, but that shouldn’t be the main focus. Remember, visitors are there to solve problems, so they need answers. Unfortunately the brutal truth is they don’t necessarily care about who you are and what led you to your business. They need to know how to solve their problems and they need someone prepared to do just that — offer solutions. This isn’t to say, nobody cares ever, but the main purpose of your website is your business and what it offers customers.
Lack of Trust
Where there’s no trust, there’s no business. If they can’t trust you, they certainly aren’t handing over their money to you. You are supposed to offer trust that you have integrity, work ethic, and do what you say you will. Money doesn’t grow on trees, as much as we all would love that! Therefore, nobody is wanting to just throw their money away on a lacking business that can’t follow through or do the job right. Instilling trust is vital in converting your visitors into real customers. They have to know you mean business and they will get results if they trust you. Without trust, you have nothing.
Is Your Website Helping or Hurting Your Online Presence?
Given everything we just went over, is your website helping or hurting your business? If you reflect on the information above and determine your missing vital pieces of the puzzle, then you’re on the right track. The first step in moving on is realizing what needs improvement. From there, you can implement the needed fixes and ensure you’re there for your customers and creating long-term stability in your business.
Your business is your livelihood, so ensuring your website is optimal and organized to help visitors make sense of your site and convert to customers, is vital to your long-term business goals and success. Did you know most businesses fail within the first 5 years? That’s a scary thought. Let’s make sure you’re not another failure statistic just because your site was lacking. There’s a way to fix these issues and turn things around — for the better.
Professional Doesn’t Mean Expensive
Having a professional website doesn’t have to be expensive. It just needs to be effective. Ensuring you are giving your visitors, customers, what they want is a big first step. Not to mention, everything else we discussed — if those checkboxes are there, you’re on the right path.
The point of your website should be to effectively communicate, organize, and solve the problems of your customers. If all that is being done, you’re effective.
You don’t have to spend thousands and thousands on a business website and a lot depends on what your site really needs to do. Is it a service website, an educational platform or blog, an Ecommerce, a marketplace? All these would have different needs to provide.
So depending on the depth, you could spend thousands, however, you could also be able to function with key components to keep the cost down. A big difference here is are you making your own website and able to maintain it while running your business, or are you going to hire help to handle the nitty gritty of creating a custom site fit for your business?
Your Website Should Be Working 24/7 For You
Being the first thing a customer would come across online — your store, it should be continuously working for you. Helping to answer those repetitive questions, filling customers in on who you are and what you offer, easy-to-find information and clear call-to-actions and contact pages.
When you’re hitting all the checkboxes, there needs to be a clear method of contact with your potential customers. Having a form built into your page will help both you and customers with clear communication and answering the benign but important questions before ever connecting — this way it makes most out of your conversation when you do connect.
Efficient, effective, and effortless. This is what your business website should be doing each time a new visitor loads your page.
What Do You Want Your Website To Say About You?
“I take my business seriously.”
“I’m trustworthy and experienced.“
“Detailed and organized.”
“I’m hard to work with.”
“Just here for the money. “
“I’m not invested in my business.“
Which one would you prefer? I know what my answer would be and what yours probably is. Make sure your intent is obvious throughout your website. It is the first impression after all.
Take a scroll through your website through the eyes of your customer. What do you see?
If you’re noticing any lacking in organization, clear call-to-action, no SEO, and just overall improvements needed — then take the first step to recognize change is needed.
Sometimes it can be hard to see it through a customers’ eye because you’re too close. This is your baby. You want it to grow and succeed. That’s why it’s good to reflect and recognize and bring in assistance if needed.
What do you want your business website to say about you?
Get The Expertise Your Website Deserves
Contact me for strategy, SEO implementation, designing or redesigning your website, even just maintaining your site so you can focus on running your actual business. Contact me and let’s get started getting your website out of the abyss of random and abandoned or keep it from ever reaching it!
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- Fill out a Brief Consultation form
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