Common Website Mistakes to Avoid
Websites are the modern equivalent of a business card. They’re necessary to stay competitive. If you don’t have a website, the chances are that your competitor down the street does. And you can bet that customers will go to that business in a heartbeat if they can’t find out anything about your business online.
These days, an online presence confirms your legitimacy as a business.
With that being said, you don’t want to waste people’s time when they do come to your website. They want readily available information that gets straight to the point of what they need. Wading through useless, peripheral information will only frustrate them and send them clicking over to your competitor before the web page has finished loading.
Website mistakes which can cause that situation to happen more quickly include:
1. Talking Too Much About Yourself Instead of What You Can Do for the Client
Your website is a marketing tool. It is not a one-sheet for your personal or business biography. Your “About” page can give some relevant background about your business’ origins or mission statement, but when people visit your website’s homepage, the focus should be on how they landed on the right website to get exactly what they need. The “who” is not as relevant in this case as the “what” and “how fast.”
2. Forgetting to Add a Search Box
If all the things that you offer can’t fit on one page, then people will probably want to do a quick look up for what they need. The emphasis here is on the word, quick. People are used to doing web searches, and they will look for a search box if they don’t immediately see what they are looking for. That search box should be in a highly visible place because if your visitors have to search too long for it, they’ll just as soon go to Google and search for another business that can deliver whatever it is they’re looking for.
3. Allowing Links to Other Sites to Open in the Same Window
The goal is to keep your website visitors on your site for as long as possible. The longer they stay and engage with your content, the more likely they are to become a customer or at least a subscriber. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to link to third party sites for such things as reading source material or to complete a purchase. No matter the reason that they leave, you always want your visitors to come back. Make it easy for them to do that by having all of your outbound links open in a new window. This way, your website remains present and available as a reminder for visitors to take another look whenever they’ve finished doing the offsite tasks.
By having a website for your business and avoiding these three common mistakes, you can create a better online experience for your prospects and customers.
