Is Your Website at Risk for Failure?

It seems that these days everyone has a website and small businesses can have a hard time keeping up with the competition. It is difficult to come up with unique marketing strategies that will put you in front of the crowd. This is where many businesses start to lose the basic principles that make a good website. What it all boils down to is being able to tell your story and communicate information easily and in a non-confusing manner. There are several reasons why your website may be failing and some tips to follow to ensure that your site doesn’t fall into internet oblivion.

Zero Usability

Your website is your business card so to speak and it had better make a good first impression. Confusing navigation and poorly laid out pages will not only deter, but cost you potential customers. You want your customers to find the information they are seeking easily and that your pages are consistently leading the customer to the content they seek. A streamlined site with a clean layout and clear headers and information will make it very user-friendly. This will encourage repeat customers to continually come back to your site. 

Too Much Information

Anyone who hops onto a website only to be met with nothing but endless text may very well click right off. While we like to immediately find what we are searching for, we don’t like to be bombarded with words that lose their meaning. It’s easy for many businesses to feel the need to cover their bases by repeating their main points over and over, but it’s not necessary. It’s overwhelming to potential customers and it keeps your site from looking clean. Instead, provide the most important information that your customers want, use short sentences and bullets when necessary, and keep your content focused. This way, customers will be able to find answers to their questions efficiently.

Unmemorable Website Name

This is a pretty important piece when branding your business. You definitely want to take the time to think of a good name for your website. It’s essential that you find a name that aligns with your company’s image and can be easily optimized for search. Most people think you can only have a URL ending with .com. However, these days, times are changing and there are a growing number of extensions such as .website, .brand, and .business. Choose what will work best for your business in the long run. Remember, a unique and memorable name will go far in reaching a larger target audience.

Forgetting a Call To Action

Once you have created a great looking website, don’t forget your call to action. You want to encourage your customers to go from merely looking at your website to actually purchasing your products/services. In order to do this, you can do anything from having virtual assistants available for customer questions to encouraging your customers to follow you on Facebook or other social medias and sign up for your newsletter or mailing list. This way, you can communicate your latest business news with your customers and keep them coming back for more. 

Not Being Mobile Friendly

In today’s world where more and more people are accessing websites and making purchases directly from their phones, it can be a real buzzkill to businesses who are not mobile-friendly. It’s absolutely critical that your website be mobile ready in order for your customers to view your information on a smaller screen. And because they are reading from a smaller screen, information needs to be cleanly laid out, succinct, and quick to load. 

Your website will most definitely be a part of your company’s success. It takes a lot of tedious hours to maintain your website, but it’s worth the extra effort and dedication. By ensuring that you are always updated with the latest technology and keeping up with what your customers are requesting of you, you will create a rich presence on the web.