5 Website Mistakes You May Be Making

When building a website, every detail is important – from the content, to the images, to the placement of the various elements.

Unfortunately, when launching a website, many things can be overlooked.

With the proliferation of pre-made themes and DIY websites, many sites are being launched without thinking of how website elements work together, yet each having their own role.

Here are the main mistakes we see being made on websites every day.

 

Not Paying Attention To Your Mobile Users

Since early 2014, more people having being using mobile devices than desktop computers. In addition, Google is now adding “Mobile-Friendly” labels to their search results, and they are hinting on giving mobile-friendly website preferences in search results.

If your website is not built in a manner that makes viewing it on a mobile phone an enjoyable experience, you are losing business. Users are tech-savvy, and if your website is not cutting it, they will move on to one that is.

 

Using Text That Is Hard To Read

I see this all the time. The two main sins in this area are:

  • font that is to small to read, and
  • text that does not have enough contrast.

It may seem very artsy to have a light grey font on a crisp white background, but if your users cannot read your content without enlarging the page, they will soon become frustrated. The same goes for a small, trendy font. Don’t do it.

 

Not Having An Opt-In Form

If you are marketing your products or services online (and if you have a website, that’s exactly what you are doing), you should be building a list of qualified email addresses. Your opt-in form should be on every page of your website. The only exceptions to this are the home page, where you should be using a strong call-to-action to draw your readers further into your website, and the contact form or check-out page, where you want to eliminate as many distractions as possible.

Your opt-in page should have as few fields as possible (ideally just a first name and an email address) and should include something you are giving away in exchange for an email address (PDF, free chapter of a book, a set of free videos, a how-to, etc).

 

Not Giving Away Information

Some businesses hate to provide free information. What they don’t realize is that giving away free information positions yourself as an expert in your field.

Blogging, writing articles, creating how-to guides, etc, that you can give away for free, goes along way in building up people’s trust in you and your business. It also will serve to peak the interest of potential clients.

Giving away something free today can lead to business down the road.

 

Not Paying Attention To Analytics

Repeat after me: “Google Analytics Is My Friend”.

If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your website, it should be one of the first things you should do (right after reading this article). There is a wealth of information in the reports, and paying attention to this information is vital to understanding how people are using your website, what pages are performing well (or poorly), click-through trends, etc.

 

Not Using Social Channels

Social Media is upon us, and it has been for a while. If you are not leveraging the Power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram (I could go on here for a while), then you are missing out on a huge chunk of business.

With very few exceptions, your target market is online. If you are not hanging out in their social networks, they may not even know you exist. This is not a “should-have”, this is a “must-have”.

 

What mistakes do you see on websites? I’ve just listed a few of the most common ones, but there are many others. I’d love to read your comments.

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