Your website is the face of your business. It can be accessed from anywhere in the world at any time, and it’s role is to represent you exactly as you are (or preferably better, even). Because of this, customers use your company's website to make numerous assumptions about your brand at a glance. Your website is often the first thing your target audience will see. Creating the layout and curating how your business communicates with the customer are vital parts of a successful website. A professionally designed website will directly influence customer perception of your brand and products for years to come, so that first impression needs to stick. But what if this fails? How could you avoid it? How do you make it look more professional, attractive, and interesting for your customers or clients? Do not allow your website to be an afterthought in your marketing efforts. Today we’ll take a look at how a bad website can hurt your business, and touch on how to avoid these classic mistakes so that your business’s online presence can thrive. Many of your potential customers will have their first interaction with your brand online through your website. Something as simple as a convoluted or cluttered design can wreak havoc on user experience and can disqualify you from the start. 75% of consumers admit they judge a business’s credibility based on their website design. Website clutter is a deterrent — remove any flash animations, auto-play videos, background music, and ad prompts. Your visitors and Google would be much happier if you did. A poorly designed website can cause tracking problems and ultimately lower your ranking in Google and other search engines. It is also a massive turn-off to visitors, and once they leave, they won’t return. Confused and frustrated visitors simply won’t buy your product or service. No one wants to land on a website that is complicated to navigate. If your page is not simple and easy to browse, you will lose otherwise motivated leads. If your message and navigation are not clear — clients will click away. Your website should contain your address and phone number — making it easy for website visitors to contact you. Your content should be organized and easy to navigate. Get rid of any erroneous content that does not contribute to your overall brand message. If your website doesn't clearly display your brand's aesthetic, products, or services, customers will simply look elsewhere to make their purchase. Clients will see others with similar services. Cut the fat and make your presentation as streamlined as possible to put as few steps in the way as possible between your audience getting to your site and completing the desired action. If your website hasn’t taken accessibility into consideration, it is very likely that users with accessibility challenges will not find it easy to see your content correctly — for example, not having the correct color contrasts, use of fonts, navigation, or other development structures in place can make it difficult for some people to see your content. That’s an entire portion of your target audience that isn’t able to browse your site and become clients or customers because their ability to access your content was deemed nonessential. Don’t make that mistake! On the other side of accessibility is mobile friendliness. According to Comscore, the number of website visitors accessing content online through their mobile devices has now surpassed those who use a desktop or laptop. This means that if your website is not mobile responsive, you are not allowing the majority of those online at any given moment to access your content properly. In fact, Google has long-since moved to mobile-first indexing, meaning that if your site isn’t mobile responsive, not only are you providing a subpar experience to your website visitors, but you are also actively hurting your rankings via the Google search algorithm. Clean websites are the key to accessibility. Without a mobile-friendly website, when users visit your site from their mobile device, everything will appear cluttered, messy, and designed for a landscape viewing experience, rather than a portrait one. No one wants to scroll sideways through your site to get to the navigation bar or to have to zoom in to tap a button or type in a search bar on your site. Ensure that your site is mobile responsive and that you are meeting ADA guidelines for accessibility. Having an identifiable brand name can make or break your business. So can your domain name. If you pick an exceptionally long domain or one not relevant to your business, you could potentially divert your target audience. Likewise, choosing a cheap hosting service, is often a poor choice, since a low-quality host can be down more often than you’d like and leave your customers unable to access your site. This is especially harmful for eCommerce sites. Most consumers expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less. 79% of shoppers reported they would not return to purchase from a slow-loading website. Like many of the other errors, choosing the wrong domain or hosting package could negatively impact your business by losing clients, losing sales, losing leads, or facing excessive downtime that your business can not afford. Saving a few dollars just to lose far more is a terrible investment - Don’t skimp on your hosting. If you have a website that has been poorly developed, there is a good chance that it’s difficult for those with accessibility issues to view your website’s content. Problems such as the wrong color contrast, too-large or too-small fonts, difficult navigation, or any other poor design elements which are in place can make it difficult for some visitors to view your website or any of its content. If your website is not reaching the audience it could be reaching — you’re missing out on valuable sales opportunities. If you have a website that harbors inaccessibility to a portion of your audience, be they disabled or able-bodied, you run the risk of word-of-mouth marketing leading to even more sales opportunities lost. Worse yet, not following ADA accessibility standards can run you afoul of legal penalties, even if it doesn’t necessarily affect your Google rankings. At Carrboro Creative, we design 100% customized WordPress sites to fit your business’s needs. Our process is simple, straightforward, and personable. We’ll talk with you about your vision for your site, allow for multiple rounds of revisions as we hone in on your perfect design, and train you on how to update and maintain your site yourself. We even offer site maintenance packages on a monthly basis. Get in touch with us today to get a free quote. Start building your online presence the right way with Carrboro Creative.5 Website Errors that Hurt Your Business
1. Bad Web Design
Why a bad design can hurt your business:
2. Your Website is Overly Complicated
Why an overly complicated website will hurt your business:
3. Your Website Isn’t Mobile Friendly / Isn’t Accessibility-Focused
Why having a non-mobile-friendly website will hurt your business:
4. You Picked the Wrong Domain and Hosting
Why picking the wrong domain and hosting could hurt your business:
5. Inaccessible to a Portion of the Population
Why keeping your website inaccessible to some can hurt your business:
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