Even 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 NOT to do.
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.
2. Hiding your contact details
Contact details are incredibly important for your website, but it’s amazing how hard they are to find on a lot of websites. Make sure you either display them clearly in the same place on every page, and/or have an easy-to-find contact page. Most people will look for a contact page called either ‘Contact’ or ‘Get in touch’, and they’ll usually look for it at the end of your main menu.
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 about you and your business. Think about questions that you’re regularly asked about your product or service and make sure they’re answered. If you receive lots of common questions, create a dedicated FAQ page.
Consider also why people are visiting your website and what they might be looking to find whilst they’re there. Lay everything out in a clear and intuitive way so that your users don’t get frustrated trying to root through confusing menus or irrelevant information.
Of course, you don’t want to go overboard and include every tiny thing because then you overwhelm people. If someone has a very specific or particular question, they’ll get in touch, but make sure you’re covering, at a minimum, the most common and important details about your business.
4. Slow load time
Online attention span is generally very low and people are, 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. Research shows that users expect a website to load within two seconds!
So compress your images, fine-tune data guzzling sections of your website, and make sure it’s super speedy.
5. Not being mobile first
There are still many websites out there that aren’t fully mobile friendly, which means it’s difficult or impossible to view them on a mobile device.
Mobile traffic is up to 55% and growing. If people are looking at your website on their phones and they have to zoom in to read text or can’t click on too-small links, then you need to revamp your site and get it sorted. Websites should be flexible enough that they look good and work well on both mobile and desktop.
The phrase ‘mobile first’ means you should design your website for use on a mobile phone. How it looks and works on a laptop or desktop computer is now secondary (though still important). If you have a website designer, they should automatically make it mobile friendly (and if they don’t it’s time to get a new one). If you don’t have a professional website, or have one that hasn’t been updated in eons, then it may be time to invest in a revamp. Your customers (and your bottom line) will thank you!
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