Common mistakes businesses make with their website

Common mistakes businesses make with their website

It doesn’t matter how big or small your organisation is, when it comes to promoting your business, your website is a crucial element of your marketing mix.

A website is a central hub that promotes your business to prospective customers, supports the needs of existing audiences and helps you stand out in your industry.

However, simply having a website isn’t enough.

Like any important aspect of your business, your website needs attention, maintenance and ongoing development to ensure it’s technically sound, visible to Google and attracting the right attention.

Here are some of the most common mistakes businesses make with their website and how to avoid them…

Top website dos and don’ts

Don’t forget about your website

Just because your website is built and live, it doesn't mean your job is done.

You must invest time into the health of your website to ensure it’s technically sound and relevant to audiences searching for information.

For example, you need to keep software up-to-date to mitigate security vulnerabilities where attackers can access the system without authentication.
You also need to maintain a firewall to prevent access from IP Addresses making suspect requests to the site.

Old or unmaintained software will leave your website vulnerable to attacks by malicious actors. If your site is accessed through a back door, then your site may be at risk, which could also impact the server it is hosted on. Risks here can range from your site being deleted to the whole server being infected with malware. Often the attackers want to use your site to start sending spam emails across the internet.

In addition, you need to ensure your website is attracting the right audience and standing up against your competitors. So, ask yourself, when was the last time you looked at your website and interrogated the data? What are your insights telling you about user behaviour? When was the last time you conducted an SEO audit of your website and measured performance against competitors? Do you know why potential customers are choosing your competitors over your brand?

Nurture your website and give it the resources it needs to be the best online representation of your brand, and you’ll reap the benefits.

Do invest in the ongoing development of your website

Your marketing strategy should evolve and your website should be part of that plan.

How much you invest in general maintenance will depend on the type of services you provide and how often you update your website.

For example, a business that specialises in a number of core services and updates web content monthly may only need to audit their website a few times a year. Whereas eCommerce websites or companies with high visitor volume will invest in regular inspections to test site performance.

In addition to site audits, you should carry out strategic tests on the user journey of your website and ensure audiences are taking the correct pathways to complete conversions. This can be achieved through A/B testing to see what pathways, content and CTAs work best. Knowing what works is the key to website optimisation.

Understanding user behaviours - including where potential customers drop off - will help you troubleshoot problems, improve user journeys and create experiences that will encourage your visitors to complete goals.

If you don’t have an inhouse team, you can enlist the support of a specialist agency who will take care of it for you and provide strategic direction on site improvements.

Don’t rush website builds

Building or rebuilding a website takes time. This is your digital shop window, and in many instances, your website will be the first interaction people will have with your business. You need to create the right impression and ensure your site is relevant to what they need.

Do work with a website partner that will do what’s right for your business

Drshna Vara, CEO of ThinkEQ says “A common mistake businesses make is rushing a web build. Regardless of the CMS system, creating a website takes proper planning, strategic thinking and an intelligent approach to site structure. Cut corners, and your business will feel it.

“Of course, there are circumstances where businesses have to act quickly and have tight deadlines due to specific commercial reasons. In these instances, we always advise businesses to work with partners who will act in their best interests and take an honest approach to what is realistic within those timeframes. For example, we have worked with businesses in similar situations, and we work with them on a phased approach that ensures they can go live when they need to and still create a site that provides a seamless experience for audiences.

“The same goes for businesses with big plans but limited budgets. It is possible to get what you want in a time frame that works for your requirements and finances.”

Don’t expect miracles

Just because your website is live, it doesn’t mean you’ll be at the top of Google instantly.

Ranking for relevant keywords takes time. You have to truly invest in SEO and give Google time to rank content on your website.

Ahrefs reported that it can take anywhere from 3 months to a year for businesses to appear on page one if they’re starting from scratch.

And in a 13-month study from SEMrush, they found that only 7.65% of 28,000 domains studied ranked in the top 100.

SEO is competitive and if you want to make sure your brand appears in search, you have to create good quality content.

Do invest in your SEO and Content Marketing strategies

“If you want to beat your competitors, you need to understand the competitive landscape.” continues Vara.

“We all have perceptions about what’s important to our customers or think we know what they want. But. it’s important to step outside of our echo chambers and look at data to see what people are actually searching for and what competitors are doing to capture audience attention.

“This insight is gold for creating content marketing plans that will amplify your website content and ensure your business ranks for the keywords that are most important to your brand.

“This goes far beyond blog content. This is about creating appropriate themes that will help you to create compelling content that will resonate with your audiences and help you build authentic connections across all marketing channels”.

Don’t forget about accessibility

It’s easy to get caught up in the aesthetics and the beautiful design elements of your website, but you could actually be penalised by Google if the user journey experience is poor.

Things like coloured fonts against specific backgrounds, flashing images, quick moving visuals, excessive pop-ups, confusing text, hard-to-read pages, and a complicated navigation can contribute to your website being penalised.

Do consider the needs of your audience

Your website audits will provide insights into user behaviour and this information will help you make vital changes before they become a problem.

Whether you’re creating a website from scratch or updating a website, always ensure accessibility is factored into the website design process and once live, regularly review to see how users are interacting with specific elements of your website.

Don’t focus on a desk-top-only design

The way we access information has changed in recent years, with more people using different devices to search online.

If you have only catered for one user type, you run the risk of losing important traffic.

Having a website design that is only built for desktops could also impact your site’s ranking as Google will see higher bounce rates and deem your site irrelevant to certain search requests.

Do invest in a responsive website

A responsive design means your website will be accessible from a host of mobile devices, so whether someone is on a tablet, Iphone or smartphone, they’ll enjoy a seamless experience and be able to view the information they need in the right format.

According to Statista, there are over 6 billion mobile internet users worldwide, with mobile traffic accounting for 59% of global online traffic, so don’t miss out on valuable traffic by having an old, archaic website.

Don’t limit your ability to update your website

Back in the day, websites were often hard-coded. This meant that once they were built, they couldn't be updated without development time.

This impacted a business's ability to update sites quickly and easily, so if they didn't have the resources or budget to invest in development time, sites would become outdated and long-term SEO would be impacted.

Do invest in a Content Management System that gives you complete control

If you want a cost-effective way to stay relevant and competitive, you need to invest in a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you easily and effectively manage your website.

Wordpress is an example of a CMS and is a popular choice for many businesses.

On Wordpress, Drshna Vara said “Wordpress is an excellent option for many businesses. It’s user-friendly, even if you have limited technical knowledge. Is easy to update and create modularly, so in-house teams can create pages as they need to.

“It’s responsive on any device and offers plenty of functionality thanks to plugin options, so if you want to integrate business tools like email or want to be able to accept credit card payments, you can.

“You can even implement Yoast SEO plugins to help with ongoing SEO optimisation to improve reach and rankings.”

One of the best aspects of a CMS is that it allows you to scale your website at a speed that’s right for your business. So if you need to start simple and then upgrade to include more functionality or storage, you can easily do so.

Don’t expect web users to trust your brand

A component of Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (SQEG) is E-E-A-T.

This basically refers to the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness of your website.

Whilst it doesn’t relate to direct ranking signals measured by Google, it should be considered within your overall marketing strategy.

You need to show Google and potential customers that you are an expert in what you do, that you are a trusted authority, and you provide an exceptional experience for your customers.

Do build trust and credibility in your brand

There are many things you can do beyond adding accreditation and award badges to your website to build trust and credibility.

Encourage customers to leave Google reviews, incorporate TrustPilot reviews into your website to build confidence in what you do and encourage enquiries.

You can also work with relevant brand partners on your social accounts to raise awareness and generate brand credibility.

You can also incorporate traditional and digital PR into your content marketing strategy to improve authority trust in your brand.

Don’t expect organic to do all the heavy lifting

SEO takes time, so if you want to boost brand awareness, drive more traffic to your site and encourage conversions, invest in paid activations.

This instant traffic-driving activation will also provide invaluable data that you can use to improve other marketing activities.

Do invest in paid media promotion

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, banner advertising and social media advertisements are excellent ways to attract more attention and drive traffic to your website.

Start with a conservative spend and see what works for your brand, take a test and learn approach to improve messaging and drive down cost per click and cost per impressions.

Once you have these learnings, you can set benchmarks and identify ROI against your overall marketing spend and drive more awareness, traffic and leads through your website.

Get a FREE website audit

If you think your website is overdue for some much needed attention, ThinkEQ is offering businesses the chance to get a free website audit and gain invaluable insights into site performance and potential opportunities for site improvements.

If you’re interested, you can drop an email to hi@thinkeq.co.uk with the subject title of ‘Chamber of Commerce free audit’, and the team will get back to you.