7 Small Business Website Mistakes (and How to Do Better)
Do you know that when people visit a website, they spend less than fifteen seconds deciding if they’re going to stay? That means you have to find a way to grab their attention and keep it. If you manage to hold their interest for an entire three minutes, they are twice as likely to come back then if you only keep them reading for one minute. (Hopefully, I’ve held your attention long enough that you’re reading this).
So, what are small business website mistakes that turn people away from a website? Here are seven I’ve found.
1. The website is not secure
If people are coming to your website to purchase something, they want to know that their information is safe. If they don’t see that little green lock in the address bar on your site, they might leave. Having a secure website not only gives your visitors confidence, but it also helps your business appear higher in the search engine results and helps keep data secure.
2. Too Much Information on the Page
There’s nothing worse than trying to find a product or an answer to a question than going to a website and getting hit will a wall of pictures, videos, and text. People want to be able to find information quickly. Too much information on one page is not going to help them.
3. Unprofessional Photos and Graphics
When you want someone to purchase a product from you, you need to gain their trust. When you have dark or blurry product photos and a logo that looks like it was slapped together in a few minutes, you will not gain that trust. The user may simply decide that you are not a professional business and just leave.
4. Bad Color Choices
If I go to a website and my eyes are attacked by a rainbow of neon colors, I leave. Having too many colors and colors that don’t go together is another way that a website tells me it isn’t professional and that I probably shouldn’t trust it.
5. Using All Caps to Draw Attention to Something
Using all caps is a great way to make it seem like you’re yelling at your customer. There are times when using all caps is fine in design and typography, but when you use it in multiple lines of text, it screams, this is not a professional website. A good rule is, just don’t use all caps.
6. Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly
Do you know that 40% of users will go to a competitor after having a bad mobile experience? That’s potentially a lot of customers you might lose. Now that so many people are using their phones to access websites and to shop online, it is critical that your website is mobile-friendly.
7. The Website Lacks Design
A website that is nearly all text with very few photos and no layout tells me that it is a very old website, or the person who made it didn’t know what they were doing. Not a great way to make people want to buy something from you.
Fix My Small Business Website Mistakes
Did you read through my list and think, “oh no! My website has some of these problems?” If so, don’t fret because my next post will talk about the five ways to make your small business website better.
Feeling overwhelmed by the thought of navigating the ins and outs of web design by yourself? Let the professionals at Alpine Marketing Ventures take the wheel (or mouse to be more exact) so you can concentrate on running your business. Contact us today.
Sources
www.crazyegg.com/blog/website-design-best-practices/
https://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/build-a-killer-website-19-dos-and-donts.html