It happens. Either you have your website built for you, or you DIY a website. It looks good – covers everything you need so you put it online and don’t check back on it. But do you know what’s missing? This article outlines some of the most common mistakes business owners will make with their website.
- Website takes too long to load
The most common and disastrous mistake any website owner can make is to have a website which takes too long to load. The primary culprit for this is un-optimised image file sizes which take longer to load – but can also bloated code, too many website plugins or even cheap/offshore hosting can delay your website loading. Why is this important? Statistics show that for every second it takes a website to leave, you lose 12% of users. So if you can reduce your load time from 6 seconds to 2 seconds, you will stop 50% of your users leaving before the page even loads. Cannon Pest Management founds a reduction in load speed times from 11 seconds to 4 seconds through image file size optimisation alone.
How do I fix this? By using speed optimisation plugins like WP Rocket, and image optimisation plugins like Imagify, you can solve most of your website related load speeds. You will need to ensure you’re using local high speed hosting in any case though – because even the most agile website will struggle if it needs to send data across the globe each time it loads on a user’s device.
- Focuses too much on visual without any text
Having a variety of information displays is important. Whilst a picture may say a thousand words, it says very little to Google when it comes on understanding your website and where to place it in the rankings. By having a variety of information sources – text, images, video etc – it can allow for both your users and Google to understand clearly your business and how prominently it should be shown on the internet. Master Your Money Now previously was primarily focused on video based content for their website, with the home page having minimal text compared to their competitors. Because of this they were not ranking for any related keywords in their industry. Once text was added – they’ve significantly increased their presence online giving them more options for generating new clients.
How do I fix this? Content is king! Add text to your website if its lacking. Look at your competitors’ average keywords for the page you want to rank and try to meet this keyword amount at a minimum.
- Disclaimers, terms and conditions, licence or tax information missing
It may seem unimportant to some – but having all of these things help a user generate trust in the authenticity of your business. Especially in the case of disclaimers and T&C’s, these pages are used as ranking signals by Google in determining which website to preference in Google searches over others so don’t leave yourself short. You can read more about the importance of these in this article on blog disclaimers.
How do I fix this? Fill out all important information in your footer including having a disclaimer and T&C page at a minimum. There are a number of free plugins you can also use to generate these for you with only a small amount of effort.
- Not showing reviews
Whether it’s through using a plugin to show external reviews on Google, Facebook or Yelp – or even just having testimonials written on your website – not having some form of validation of the experiences of your clients will reduce the number of users contacting you to take up your service. Check out how potent a strong pool of reviews are here for Master Driving School’s website.
How do I fix this? Get yourself a review plugin and embed it on your website. Ideally show Google reviews which are seen as the highest standard of reviews. Likewise you will need to make sure in your processes that you ask for reviews to build up your brand.
Do you need help with building a better website? The team at ClickBurst are experts in building websites which generate more customers and sales for your business. Contact us today.