No one likes to be told that something they're doing is bad. But the great part of getting negative feedback is that you now know what you're doing wrong and can work to improve on it.
Don't wait for someone to tell you that something on your website isn't working, because that probably won't happen. Here are eight ways your business website might be failing, and action steps that will help you correct these costly mistakes.
The Grammar Police Haven't Visited Lately
We all make mistakes, so why is a small grammatical error on your website a big deal? It's because of what this error says about your business.
For example, if Mavidea, a company that provides website design and development services (and internet marketing and IT), has an image on the homepage that doesn't load and several spelling errors, who would trust us with their website? Errors say that you don't pay attention to detail, and can also distract visitors from the messages you're trying to get across to them.
Action Step: Our Content Advisor uses Grammarly to double-check his articles and website content before publishing an article or sending website content to a client. Try using it to check your website content.
Small Screens Aren't Your Friend
Even if you believe most of your customers still use a desktop, it's likely that from 25-50% of your website visitors will be viewing your website from their phone or a tablet. If your website can't be viewed or doesn't function well on a smartphone, you're missing opportunities to connect with your customers and to reach new ones.
Action Step: Take out your smartphone and visit your website. Visit each page and scroll down to see how your website looks like on a phone.
No One Knows What You're About
The "About" pages on websites are the second most viewed pages on a website for a reason. People want to know who you are and what you have to offer them. If you don't have an about page or it's weighed down with too much clutter or hard to read, they will close off of your page and continue their search with another one of your competitors.
Action Step: Add an about page to your website that explains the value your business adds to its customers, a brief background of your company's history, and a picture and information about your team.
Check out ->->-> Mavidea Web Design
Google Isn't Answering Your Phone Calls
81% of shoppers conduct online research before buying a product or service and 94% of B2B buyers research online before buying. And where do you think these searches start? On Google!
If your competitors are ahead of you in search results, they essentially get to talk to your customers first before you even get a chance to explain why you might be a better fit. Don't get lost on Google, instead, show Google why you're important by investing in SEO.
Action Step: What are your customers searching for when they want to buy the product or service you have to offer? Search a couple of those phrases/search terms and see where you rank.
To move ahead of your competitors, consider working with an SEO expert or take some time to learn about SEO and incorporate those tactics into your website. Mavidea has an SEO expert on-staff who can help. Here's a recent Facebook Live Q&A our Jason Lerblance did on SEO that's worth watching.
You're Fitting In
Fitting in isn't always a good thing. If your website doesn't stand out to your customer, they won't even remember visiting your website.
Mavidea helps our customers stand out by adding videos to the homepage and by working with copywriters to make sure the content on the site connects with visitors.
Action Step: First, you need to know what your competitors are doing, so visit their websites and take a few notes. What are they missing? What would one of your customers want to see or know that your competitors aren't showing and telling them? After figuring this out, change your website to give this to your visitors.
Check out ->->-> KDC's Before + After Story
Who's There?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
(silence)
No, really, who's there?
Effective small business websites are able to capture information for their visitors. This ranges from having Google Analytics enabled to know the type of people that are visiting your website to collecting emails and names of people who are curious about learning more about your products or services.
Action Step: Include an e-mail sign-up feature on your website to collect the emails of people who want to learn more from you and your business through a newsletter. Even if you do not plan on writing a monthly newsletter, you should at least be tracking analytics on your website to see who's visiting, allowing you to adjust your website and marketing efforts based on what your website visitors want, need, and like.
Where's the Blog?
Writing might not be your best skill or something you prioritize in your business, but blogs are important for small businesses. A blog helps increase your site's search rankings, positions yourself and business as a subject matter expert, and helps develop better and stronger relationships with customers.
Action Step: Create a blog page on your website, but before you do, plan ahead. At the very least, you should be publishing one new post a month. This can be something simple, but make sure you commit to updating your blog monthly before creating one.
Social Media Disconnection
Social media plays an important role for the vast majority of small businesses. If your social media accounts aren't linked to your website, you're failing to extend your interactions with that visitor to social media, which can shorten their decision-making period and help them get to know your business better.
Also, if your website has a blog, your posts should also have social media sharing options that encourage readers to share the article with their network.
Action Step: Incorporate your active social media account links into your site's design. Having these links visible will help increase your followers and likes, and give your current and potential customers another way to build a stronger relationship with you.
Get the best website for your business by working with Mavidea. Contact us today to discuss your business and how we might be able to help.
