If you want your site to stand out from the online competition you’ll need to know about the most common website blunders you should be avoiding
The importance of having a high-quality website that looks amazing, operates seamlessly, and is optimized for the search engine result pages cannot be overlooked. It does not matter how big or small your business is, or what industry you operate in, you need to make sure that you have a website that impresses. However, if you take a look on the web, you will see that there are so many sites today that are failing to hit the right mark. Is your website one of these? Read on to discover more about some of the most common website blunders that you need to avoid if your site is going to stand out from the competition for all of the right reasons online.
Your website is not HTTPS –
There is only one place to begin, and this is with security. Your website needs to be secure, and one of the most important ways to do this is with an HTTPS website. Did you know that 84 percent of people would leave a purchase if their data were going to be sent over a connection that was not secure? Not only this but if your website is not HTTPS, your ranking will suffer. This has been a ranking signal for Google since 2014, and 40 percent of the page one organic listings on Google are HTTPS. Did you know that HTTPS websites also load faster as well? This is another factor that has an impact on your website user experience and consequently your ranking too. As you can see, there are many compelling reasons why your website needs to be HTTPS, with a higher level of security, of course, being the most important one.
Contact information is difficult to find –
No matter what type of business you run, you need to make sure that the contact page on your website is easy to find. Not only this, but you need to make sure you have several methods of communication available. If you merely present an online form for people to fill in, this can create a lack of trust. Users want to know that they can contact your company with ease if something were to go wrong. This is why it is always best to show your company’s address, telephone number, and email address.
Website image mistakes –
There are a number of different mistakes that business owners make when it comes to the images that they use on their website. These errors can be extremely costly and can even land you in legal trouble. You should only ever use royalty free images on your website. You cannot simply pick up an image from anywhere on the web and place it on your site, even if you do credit the source. Moreover, when you are sourcing images rather than taking your own photos, make sure you do not head to the obvious places, i.e. Flickr. This is where everyone goes for his or her photos and so it is not a good way to distinguish yourself from the other websites that you are competing with.
No H1 headings or H2 subheadings –
There are two reasons why this is bad for your website. Firstly, it is bad for the user because most people will head to a website and skim the headlines to determine whether or not they are interested in what is being displayed. Secondly, it is bad for the search engine, as search engine bots also use headers to determine the relevancy of your content to the search query that has been typed in.
Your website takes more than three seconds –
The Internet is supposed to be about convenience. People are not prepared to wait. If your website takes too long to load, people are simply going to abandon it and head to a competing website instead. According to ThinkWithGoogle, if your page load time increases from one-second to three seconds, the likelihood of a bounce rises to 32 percent. If your page load time goes from one-second to five seconds, the bounce probability then raises to 90 percent. For an increase up to six seconds, the probability of a bounce becomes 106 percent. Finally, a 10-second page load wait will increase the bounce probability to 123 percent. As you can see, page load time has a monumental impact on the success of your website, and so it is something you need to take very seriously. You can increase the speed of your website by deleting large media files.
Your website is not mobile friendly –
If people do not get the optimal website experience when they are using their mobile phone to view your site, then you are definitely making a big website blunder. In 2018, there really is no excuse for failing to have a responsive website. You need to make sure that an optimal user experience is provided no matter the device that is being used. In fact, mobiles have become the most popular device for online browsing, and so this fact alone should tell you the huge number of opportunities you are going to be missing out on if you do not have a responsive website design.
You have used a free website builder –
It is not hard to see why a free website builder would appeal. After all, it is a good way for your business to save some money. Nevertheless, the trouble is that these builders are lacking in terms of website features and they can often make your site slow to load because so many people are using them. Not only this, but your website is going to look like a million other websites, and this does nothing for you in terms of branding.
You’re not tracking your performance –
Last but not least, if you are not tracking the performance of your website and using data to your advantage, you are making a huge mistake. How do you expect to improve your website and attract more viewers if you do not work on making it better? You need to know what your customers do when they enter your website, how long they spend there, where customers leave your website, and so on. This is the only way you will get a good understanding of people’s behavior so that you can continually improve your website and achieve more.
As you can see, there are a number of different common website blunders that a lot of businesses are guilty of making in the current day and age. If you have noticed any of the mistakes that have been mentioned above, there is no need to panic. All you need to do is make sure you put the required steps in place so that you can make the necessary changes and improve your online presence. This is something you should do sooner rather than later. After all, the online world does not wait for anyone, and every day you waste with a poor quality website is a day that you have missed out on countless opportunities.
Common Website Blunders To Avoid appeared first on Mompreneur Media
