)How hard can it be to build a website?
How hard can it be? Mistakes to avoid when building a website
A website is easy to build, right? With so many ‘off the shelf’ designs available, it would seem anyone could build their own. However, while there may be some truth in that, what makes a great website stand out?
Here are some of the mistakes you should try and avoid!
A large proportion of searches are now conducted by mobile device, so it pays to have a website that is responsive to this demand. There’s nothing more frustrating that having a website load onto a table tor smart phone, only to find that half the text and images are missing, or you have to scroll left and right and up and down far too frequently, and you’d be surprised at just how often this occurs. If you’re wanting to generate business online, your website must be responsive!
Be mindful of free website builders. While they may claim to be free and allow users to design a website in a matter of minutes, they can be slow to load, and this can have a detrimental effect on your prospective customers – time is money!
Think about your design. All too often the design element of a website can be forgotten. People are too hasty in wanting to include every piece of information they have, and the website becomes cluttered and loses its proper function. On the flip side to that, some websites don’t contain enough information so finding the balance is key. Using headers, sidebars and footers for additional navigation can be an advantage here rather than using them solely for advertising and promos. Ensure important is easy to find and navigate around.
If your wanting to use your website for lead generation, make sure you have a dedicated space for capturing customer information. Create something to entice your audience in – perhaps an opt-in deal or discount – it usually works!
Don’t treat the content as secondary. When designing a website, it’s as much about the design as the actual content and words, and of course this greatly impacts your SEO. Regularly updating your content is also key, and again Google likes to see relevant and timely information as this will help with your ranking.
How often do you click on a website or particular page only to receive the 404 message – ‘Page not found’? Potential customers will quickly look elsewhere if your website isn’t working or loading pages properly so make sure you have the processes in place to help identify when things go down.
Having a website is all well and good, but if you don’t regularly review how it’s performing, what’s the point? There are various programs you can install which will provide analytics on your website’s success, but taking action is key!
Your website is your shop window to your business, done right it will take care of your customers, done badly, it will have a detrimental impact. #ITsupport
