Today there are websites for everything imaginable. There are personal websites, business websites, e-commerce sites, and many, many more. This high volume of websites also brings about a high number of subpar websites. Some sites look ancient and could have been built in the same era as Windows 98. Company websites are typically the first place where customers form their opinion on your business. If you are running a website from the stone age, potential customers might not think too highly of your company.
In order to maximize your company’s reach, make sure you are not getting in your own way. Because many customers tend to form their opinion after viewing your site, it is important to make sure you identify and remove potential problems they may experience online. Your website should grow with your business, and it is important that you are able to recognize these problems and fix them before they become troublesome. Here are 5 common website problems many sites face:
1. Poor or outdated design: As stated earlier, some sites you may come across could have been designed 20 years ago or more! If your site falls into this category, a website rebuild should be step one. If a potential customer visits your site and sees it is very outdated, this could really be a barrier for them to do business with you. If they see that you have not updated your website in ages, you may not be appearing as trustworthy
2. Broken Links: This is a problem that tends to coincide with an outdated website, but it can occur on its own. If you have links to other pages posted on your website, you should check the link from time to time to see if it is still active. This is important for generating new business, particularly checking pages where customers can contact you. If your site has links, always make sure that they are up to date.
3. Slow Loading Time: Another common problem many websites face is a slow loading time. In our day and age, people want everything now. If they can’t get what they are looking for now, they will look someplace else. If your site is taking forever to load each page, many customers may grow frustrated and navigate to a different site with a better load time.
4. Cluttered Home Page: Your home page is the first impression customers get of your website. Having a cluttered home page may lead customers to think your business is disorganized and not professional. One common mistake is trying to present too much information on your home page. Your home page should have a simple layout, making it easy for customers to navigate through it. If you wish to have a lot of information on your home page, you could set up lists or landing pages. That allows you to present the information you have by putting all the information on each respective page, rather than your homepage.
5. Lack of SEO Optimization: If your site is not properly optimized for search engines, you may face difficulty generating the traffic you wish to see. Some simple ways to make sure your website is optimized correctly is making sure that it has quick load times and is compatible on mobile devices. Checking the indexing settings and ensuring best practice HTML markup is helpful as well. Doing these kinds of SEO housekeeping items will also rank your website higher in the search results, leading to more potential customers.
It is important to not only have just a website, but a website that works and provides your target audience with the content they are looking for. Ensuring your website is free of problems should be something that your company prioritizes. Finding solutions for problems quickly is key to keeping your website up to date and running smoothly. If you need solutions to your website's problems, see what Covenant Design can do for you here.
