Your website is your business’s first impression. It’s the first thing someone sees when researching your company and it can make or break you. While an array of user-friendly tools have made it easier than ever to build a website, creating a website that fits your goals and properly reflects your brand can be tough. Here are 6 of the most common website mistakes we’ve come across through the years.
1. Not dedicating enough time to planning and strategizing the site
Whether it’s a redesign or a whole new website, planning is the mandatory first step.
What sort of site do you want to have? Who is your site for? What do you want to accomplish? What content do you want to have on your site? These are some of the basic questions that will prepare you to make some higher-level decisions with your site, such as what platform you want to host your site on and how your site should be designed. How will you drive traffic to your site? Every aspect of your site and the choices you make along the way when designing and developing your site should be fully intentional. To create that intention, set aside just a little bit of time for planning and goal setting. Additionally, goal setting is a great way to measure the progress and, in turn, the success of your site.
2. Prioritizing design over usability
While you want your site to be visually appealing and easy to navigate in terms of layout and design, functionality is just as, if not more important. In fact, your design should probably be simple anyways—it makes your site significantly easier to navigate. The real focus of your site development should be functionality and usability. Some top features of the best websites are their speed, search capabilities, and content.
3. Letting information get out of date
Keeping up to date information is especially important when it affects your customers. Have you changed locations or business hours? While this may seem obvious, we have all likely had at least one experience where we show up to an establishment ready for them to be open (and having checked their website that they’d be open), yet have been sorely mistaken when those doors were locked. That one time probably put a sour taste in your mouth, as a reflection of the entire company.
4. Having too much information
You want your website to have every bit of information your clients need—I get it. But try to be concise in your content writing. If there’s too much text, there may as well be no text because your client either won’t take the time to read it or will read it and then forget it.
If it is absolutely necessary to have so much information on your site, make sure it is well organized and broken up so that all that information is available, but clients only need to read the text/information that they are looking for.
5. Having a non-responsive site
Your site must work well on nearly every device possible in order for it to be successful. No matter what sort of business you are running, the power of a mobile site cannot be underestimated. This accessibility will enable your business to reach more people and be more convenient for your customers and potential clients.
6. Ignoring the analytics
Your site is an investment, so make sure you are tracking its progress! There are a plethora of tools available, some built right into platforms, in order to get those measurable data points. What you are measuring will likely depend on your end goal and the type of site you are creating, but some common key data point you will want to pay attention to are:
-Users
-Bounce Rate
-Average Session Duration
-Traffic Source
-Top Pages
-Conversions
When reimagining your online presence, you don’t have to go at it alone. Partner with an experienced agency that has a proven track record of success. If you’re in the market for a new website, the strategic advisors at Americaneagle.com can help. Feel free to contact us to see what we can do for you!
