If someone was to tell you your website was hurting your business, what would you think of? It might take a few minutes as when you consider things that impact your business in a negative way, but your website might not quickly come to mind. However, its appearance, design, function, and security all play a large role in your everyday business activities.
1. Your Website May Not Match Your Business Brand
What is more likely to catch your attention online – a concisely written graph of text or a crisp logo? A few lines of Pulitzer-winning text won’t pull you in nearly as quickly as a logo. Visuals impact a product or service more than written words. But if your website doesn’t match your brand, it won’t matter what you do; site visitors will quickly lose interest. A quick fix for that would be to include your logo and/or brand colors with the website.
2. Your Website Doesn’t Engage Your Visitors
The audience came to your website looking to fulfill a need, now it’s up to you to help them find the information quickly and clearly. The more specific you can be in targeting your audience, the better. If you have a call-to-action of any kind, such as wanting visitors to request a quote, schedule an appointment or sign-up for emails, make any links to forms and phone numbers bold and attention grabbing.
Though you may begin your website as a DIY style project, it shouldn’t look as one when you’re finished. Having a professional look to your website can mean the difference between return visitors and a high bounce rate on the main landing page. Grammar and spelling also play a crucial role in engaging your visitors, as does keeping your website fresh. Continually posting new information and content will tell visitors and customers that not only do you care about your business, but you’re still in business.
3. Your Site Looks Cheap Compared to Your Competition
One of the easiest – and best – ways to boost your website is to look at what you’re competing against. Analyze the content and features of your competitor’s websites. If you see a shortfall, something you would change, or another way to capitalize on something they’re doing, add it to your website.
Saving a few pennies to start your website may mean having to shell out big money to fix a low-end website in a few months. The idea of ‘what you see is what you get’ may work for some businesses, but not many. These sites can be slow to load, unoriginal, and difficult or impossible to upgrade. First impressions are everything in life and with a business website, even if you offer a superior product or experience than your competition, have a website that reflects that dedication.
4. It Is Outdated
A website should have the look and/or feel updated every one-and-a-half to two years. While this may seem frequent, consider how quickly technology and software changes. The update doesn’t need to be a complete overhaul under this timeframe, but viewers expect businesses to keep up with the times.
Though information is the first thing many people think of about an outdated website, but other more prominent elements can outweigh the information. Non-web safe fonts, gimmicky fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus, splash pages, and opening animations that outdated in the 1990s will work against your website’s feel. Throw in autoplay media and old coding and your website may appear to be a relic from the days of a 56k modem.
Focus on clean and modern design with well-chosen elements as a cluttered design can scream outdated. However, avoid building a website around the latest and greatest trend in websites. It will likely be outdated in a year so remember function over fashion.
We thought you might enjoy this YouTube video from The List Show Channel called “Old websites that still exist.”
5. Too Many Third Party Ads Or Spam
Put yourself in the place of a potential customer visiting your website. Visit your site with a specific question or topic in mind. Are you able to see the content you need or want the moment the page loads? No? Then it’s likely time to start getting rid of ads.
Too many ads also refer to the number of pixels on the page, affecting how quickly the page loads. Remember people have short attention spans (for the most part) and carry expectations of near instantaneous access to information. The longer it takes for a page to load, the sooner people will leave your site, increasing the bounce rate and lower your SEO ranking.
6. Too Many Pop-Ups
We know you have bills to pay like everyone else, but there is such a thing as too many pop-ups. Bounce rates can increase as readers search for the tiny gray X on a myriad of pop-ups covering the page they came to read. However, pop-ups work. They provide a very strong call-to-action through one of four methods: time, content and scroll based or pop-out. Like any other CTA (call-to-action), these pop-ups can be for an announcement, sale or to collect email addresses for gated information.
7. Your Site May Not Be As Secure As It Should Be
Sadly, it’s not a matter of if your website will be hacked, but a matter of when. The two most common website security issues are hacking to cause damage and hacking to gather information. Hacking to cause damage can be as childish as interrupting normal operations as if the hackers were spray painting a city wall. Or it can be as complex as defacing a particular website, such as governmental or political websites.
While WordPress is very developer-friendly, it also presents potential issues with hacking. The simplicity of the system can easily be exposed if the default configuration isn’t change upon launch. Also, regularly backing up your website will help cut the downtime should you find your website hacked and unable to be used.
Elevare Provides Custom Website Designs
From altering the look and design of your current website to optimizing it for mobile interaction, Elevare offers a variety of services for website design and development. Our team brings years of experience to services such as template or custom website builds, WordPress development, and website maintenance and security. Contact us to discuss your website needs!
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