Basic mistakes are the worst kind of mistakes, don’t you think? Are you fouling foul of these six very basic parts of your website? If so, fear not – they’re easy to fix! In 2015, a successful website can be crucial for your business, but often, people get distracted and neglect their website. In this blog post, we’ll look at six problems you could face with your outdated website, and more importantly, how to fix them.
Cluttered Navigation
The navigation bar at the top of your site should display your most important pages on your website. You don’t need to display every possible page you can in this section, because it makes it much harder for the visitor to find what they are looking for.
What to do
Only include pages in the main navigation that you believe is full of all your most important information. Don’t fill this section for the sake of it, as this will be the most likely place your visitors will come to navigate your site.
Lack of Content
Generally, people visit your website because they’re interested in you or your business. Maybe you have an ecommerce website selling products, or they’re looking for a company to work with. As soon as people land on your website, they need to know who they are looking at. It’s vital that the user sees the most important parts of you and your business and if not, they could go somewhere else with their potential business.
What to Do
Make sure that you display a clear message about your business, ideally with your contact details prominent on the site so they can get in touch with you. You need to display all of your vital information for the potential customer to see.
Capturing User Data
If you can capture some of your customers data from their visit to your site, then that’s a really good way for generating future leads. However, just having a sign-up box on your site isn’t necessarily a great thing. There needs to clear indication on what the box is there for. You shouldn’t let your visitors scroll past this section of your site without them being drawn to it.
What to Do
Always make it clear what will happen when they fill in this section of your site. Make it clear why a visitor should be filling the form in, and then have the form send them an email confirming what they’ve done.
Out of date content
Small businesses can often make the mistake of thinking that having older content makes them look like a bigger business, when in-fact, it could put potentially customers off. For example, a customer could see some content on your site that is ages old, and they could then assume that you’re no longer trading.
What to Do
Make sure that all the content on your site is current and up-to-date. This will give the visitor the latest current view of your business. Don’t allow any content on your site that could give a potential customer the indication that your site is no longer being updated.
Too Much to choose from
Giving your customer a choice is always a good thing, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. If you throw all your information at a site visitor, then potentially, they’ll go elsewhere. You need to ensure that you display your companies information in a clear and concise way to your visitors.
What to Do
Make a decision on what each page is trying to achieve, and make that the primary vocal point of that page. Make it easy for the visitor to see the information that you want them to see.
No Clear Steps
When a visitor first lands on your site, they’ll be checking to see what services you offer. If they find what they’re looking for, they’ll then look for the next step, usually getting in touch with you. You have to ensure that the next step is clear to the visitor, otherwise, they’ll be taking their business elsewhere.
What to Do
Put yourself in your customers shoes. If you were looking at contact your business, would it be clear enough on how to do it? Don’t assume that they’ll know how to contact you, make sure they can’t miss it.