Having a successful online presence requires a whole lot of moving parts to be working together in harmony. SEO, Social Media, Paid Advertising, and Email Marketing, to name but a few.
But at the center of it all sits your website. If you get that bit wrong, it’s going to take a lot of effort to get the results you want.
So the question you need to ask yourself is whether your website is up to it or is it asleep on the job?
So here are five of the most common website mistakes. Do you recognize any of them?
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1. Not Mobile Friendly
We’re past the point where mobile Internet use has overtaken desktop and laptop browsing. The direction of travel is clear mobile is the future.
Despite this, many businesses still don’t have a mobile-friendly website. But if the numbers don’t help you make your mind up, you need to consider that Google has clearly stated that mobile-friendliness is one of its search ranking factors. Google knows that the future belongs to mobile, so it’s worth taking note.
And this doesn’t just apply to big brands and media-savvy businesses. If you’re a local business, then the chances are that your clients are searching for local services via their mobile devices, whether that’s mobile phones or tablets. So what can you do? The first thing is to check if your website is mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, then you have a few options open to you.
The best long term option is to switch to Responsive Website Design (RWD). RWD is a way of allowing one web design to be compatible with any type of browser screen, whether it be a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, or tablet. It just responds to the type of screen and presents it accordingly.
If a complete redesign is out of the question, then maybe you should consider getting a ready-made responsive WordPress Theme (if you are using WordPress as a Content Management System). This is a lower cost option as it shouldn’t be too difficult or expensive to find a WordPress designer who can help you.
The final option is to use a Mobile Website Builder and create a basic, side by side version of your website. The results will be basic, but at least it puts a tick in the mobile-friendly box.
2. Thin Content
Recent research on UK B2B websites showed that best in breed websites had over twice as much content (104 pages vs. 48 pages) as their ‘average’ lower-ranking competitors.
Any business can increase the number of pages that they have by expanding their services pages. Let me explain what I mean. Most businesses will have a services page that lists the services they provide. The problem is that they are spreading themselves too thinly for both the search engines and for prospective clients.
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If you’re a plumber and you offer an emergency call out, bathroom installation, and central heating installation, then create a page for each one. Don’t hide these services on a generic “Services” page. That way, you are not only spreading your search net wider by giving Google keyword specific content, you’re also directing visitors to a page that provides them with exactly what they are searching for.
