5 mistakes you're making on your website
Your website is your digital front door. As you're likely well aware, first impressions are important, and your website is the first interaction many of your customers will have with your business. Your website should be an extension of both you and your business—it's the very thing that can turn a first-time visitor into a loyal customer.
It's important to maintain a website that you are proud of and that represents who you are as a business. To help get you there, I've listed the top five mistakes small businesses make with their websites, as well as ways to fix them!
1- Having broken links that lead to Error 404 page.
If you’re getting 404 errors on your website, you’ve got a problem. A Google penalty for crawling errors is the least of your worries.
Do visitors get this error? Check it out and find ways to prevent it from happening in the future. Maybe there was a typo in the link when someone shared it on social media, or maybe there was a post that you deleted but forgot to redirect.
Do you get this error when browsing your own site? It could be that someone linked to a URL without an extension (like .html) or that there is an issue with the .htaccess file on your site. In those cases, contact your developer and ask him/her how to fix it.
2- Too much text
Writing for a website is not the same as writing for print. The average digital reader is busy and easily distracted. Many will scan your website's text quickly, and only concentrate on the headings and highlighted passages. If you're making one of these mistakes, they might not even make it that far!
You didn't break up your text into easily scannable sections.
You're using long, run-on paragraphs instead of short paragraphs separated by subheadings.
Your three most important points are buried in the middle of a lengthy paragraph, rather than clearly indicated at the beginning or end.
You didn't use any bulleted lists or bolded words to help readers focus their attention where it matters most.
3- Making it about you, not your client
When we start out in our careers we are taught to talk about ourselves. When networking or interviewing we are supposed to be self-promotional and show how great we are. But this is often a major mistake when it comes to building your website and creating content.
Your website needs to focus on your client, not you.
It’s tempting to go on and on about how great you are at what you do, but it’s more compelling if you tell the reader what they can expect from working with you. A good way to do this is by telling a story that shows how you help people. Ask yourself: what problem does my product or service solve? Why do people work with me? Who will benefit most from my business? Then make sure these answers are front and centre in your content.
4. Not refreshing your content
Content that is stale or out of date might actually be worse than none at all. Here's the thing about content—it's best when it's fresh and relevant. And to keep your content fresh, you need to keep it up to date with current information. This should be obvious, but it isn’t always considered when a website is first built or when it’s being redesigned. If you don't regularly go through your site and make sure everything is current, you're going to have content issues down the road.
5- Be consistent
It sounds simple enough, but having consistent content across all pages of your site is one of the most important things you can do for your users. Not only does consistency help with usability by giving people a familiar environment as they move around on your site, it also gives them confidence that they are in fact still on your site instead of on someone else’s.
Content isn't just text
When we talk about website content, we're not just talking about words; we're also talking about images and other media like video and audio files. By using multiple forms of media, you can cater to different types of learning styles while also helping keep users engaged with what they are reading
5. Privacy Policy
Mistake #1: Not having a privacy policy at all
Most of the time, if you don't have a privacy policy, there isn't a legal requirement for you to have one. However, when it comes to your website and its users, it's always best to be upfront and honest about what information you collect on your site and how you will use it. If you want people to keep visiting your website, then let them know that their data is safe with you!
Mistake #2: Making your privacy policy hard to find
If someone wants to find out more about how you handle their data, they should be able to do so without too much hassle. For example, make sure that your privacy policy link is clearly visible in the footer of every web page on your website. This way anyone can access it easily if they need to.