If you don’t already have a website for your business, you probably know that you need one. But whether you’re already set up or not, here are some tips on what to avoid.
1. Spelling and grammar errors
Nothing screams ‘unprofessional’ like a website that is littered with spelling and grammatical errors. If you’re no good at proofreading or if you have neither the time nor the inclination to read through and correct everything, hire someone for a few hours to do it for you. It will save you a lot of lost clients.
As a virtual assistant, I offer both proofreading and copywriting services. Please get in touch if you would like to chat.
2. Hiding your contact details
If you want to contact a business, you don’t want to have to root around on their website to find an email address, contact form, or telephone number. Don’t make it difficult for potential customers to get in touch with you by hiding your contact information. Make sure it’s easy and instinctual to find.
Don’t put it in an ‘About us’ page and don’t forget about it entirely. Make sure you have a dedicated ‘Contact’ page as the final item on either your main menu or a secondary menu. This is where most people will automatically look to find your information.
Including contact information in the footer of your site is also a good idea.
3. Missing vital information
There’s no point having a website if it doesn’t include relevant and vital information. Think about questions that you regularly get asked about your product or service and make sure they are answered. If you receive lots of common questions, create a dedicated FAQ page.
Consider also why people are visting your website and what they might be looking to find whilst they are there.
Of course, you don’t want to go overboard and include every tiny bit of information because then you overwhelm people. If someone has a very specific or particular question, they will get in touch, but may sure you are covering, at a minimum, the most common and important details.
4. Slow load time
Online attention span is generally very low and people are now, more than ever, used to being served information with near-immediacy. If your website takes five seconds to load, then you have likely lost a potential customer because they won’t stick around for that long.
As most people now browse with their mobiles, you have even less time: research indicates that 53% will leave a mobile page if it doesn’t load within three seconds. So, compress your images, fine-tune data guzzling sections of your website, and make sure you are super speedy.
5. Having a site that’s not mobile compatible
This one shouldn’t have to be on this list any more but there are still many, many websites out there – a lot from larger businesses that should know better – that aren’t fully mobile friendly.
Mobile traffic is up to 58% and growing. If people are looking at your website on their phones and they have to zoom in to squint at the text or can’t click on too-small links, then you need to revamp your site and get it sorted.
The phrase ‘mobile first’ means design it for use on a mobile phone – how it looks on a laptop or desktop computer is now secondary (though still important). You might be creating your website on your computer but there are tools you can use to display it as if it’s being viewed on a phone.
To see how my virtual assistant services can help you with your website, please get in touch.
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