These days, setting up a website is so easy and affordable that almost anyone can do it. Unfortunately, it can be just as easy to make mistakes that can end up costing you money. When planning a website, it is worth taking some time to do proper planning and formulating the goals you have for your website. Here is a list of 8 mistakes to avoid when you are getting a new website.
You didn’t plan your website
You fail to plan your website sufficiently, it can inhibit its success. Finding the best web designer can be time-consuming, but definitely worth it in the long-run, especially if you don’t have experience in web design. Provide your web designer with detailed information on your target audience and your goals and objectives.
Hire a web designer and work with the designer to develop a sitemap and build out a site that represents the essence of your business and the value you add to your customers’ lives.
Your pages are too long
People are either too lazy or too busy to read through pages with solid blocks of text. Text rich pages can cause visitors to lose interest and click away. Keep the text on your website short and to the point and break the content up into bite-sized pieces that are easier to read.
Make sure that the content is interesting and that it addresses the reader’s problems. The text should be scan-friendly, and people who are only reading the first and last lines should also get the message loud and clear.
Your NAP is not up to date
Keep your name, address, and contact details up to date. This may seem redundant, but a customer that has difficulty contacting you will get frustrated and you will lose them forever. A business that has relocated or underwent a name change can easily forget to update their details on their website. To avoid this from happening a business should check and update these details regularly.
You don’t have a blog
Your blog is one of the most effective ways of engaging with your audience and providing them with value. It enables you to give a step away from the noise and differentiate yourself from your competitors in the eyes of your audience.
You should post regular content on your blog and read through the comments to understand the problems your audience has. If you don’t have a blog, your audience only see a faceless entity. They won’t understand that you come from a place of authority to help them solve their problems. Not having a blog on your website is an expensive, but avoidable mistake.
Your website is difficult to navigate
When you don’t have simple and quick website navigation, your visitor’s will get frustrated and leave. Your competitors are just a click away, and they know that. Losing potential clients because of intricate navigation is a very expensive mistake that you can and definitely should avoid.
You don’t have a call to action
Having a call to action on your website is very important. This is where you literally tell the visitors what they should do to get your product or service. When you don’t tell them to take a specific action, you leave them hanging and they won’t know what to do. A call to action is proven to increase a website’s conversion rate and is something you should definitely include in your website copy.
You ignore the importance of SEO
You have to incorporate SEO into the design of your website from the get-go. If you don’t, your website will simply never show up in search engines. There are many things that you can do to optimize your website for SEO and to improve your discoverability. If you don’t have any experience with SEO, it may be worth it to get an SEO-expert to help you get your website to rank on Google.
You’re not active on social media
If there is one thing your business cannot do without, it’s a prominent social media presence. Remember to link your website to your social media accounts as this is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to make contact with new customers. Social media is also a valuable platform for sending traffic to your website.