As a small business, your website is vital to your marketing and branding efforts. Visitors are coming to your website for a specific reason, and you want to ensure that you answer their questions and use your website to sell your product or service. If you get your website designed wrong, you can easily lose thousands of dollars initially and ultimately lose even more money in potential revenue that you could be making from a well-designed, properly functioning website. Grow your bottom line by avoiding many common mistakes among business owners.
1. Putting urgency over understanding your target market.
Instead of focusing on getting your website done as soon as possible, you must first research your target audience in your specific market. Then, design your website around your research. For instance, the font size should be larger if your target market is older. Or, if your product is geared towards a younger demographic, you should consider catering your site to be smartphone-compatible. You must determine where your users should go once they get to your site. That question can be answered easily if you know your market.
2. Design is too busy or flashy.
As a web design and development company, we know that to be successful on the Internet, you need to focus on marketing your website — not a flashy design. Your design should not just be focused on bringing users there but also on getting them to the right place once they reach your homepage. Plus, flashy websites don’t look good on mobile phones or tablets, and most Internet users now visit websites from these wireless devices. Remember: visitors who visit your website probably already know what they want out of it. If they can’t figure out what to do next within three seconds, you might need to go back to the drawing board.
3. No clear call to action.
What do you want users to do once they’ve found your website? Do you want them to buy your product, contact you, or subscribe to your business e-newsletter? You need to tell visitors what the next step is and when (ideally, now!). Your content should answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” the call to action tells them what to do next.
4. Paying too little or too much.
You don’t know how often people come to my company after they’ve hired a cheap designer, let them make poor business decisions, and ended up with a horrible product. At the same time, companies get distracted by expensive agencies that work with big brands and don’t realize these agencies might not be able to help a small business that’s ROI focused. Don’t blow your budget on your website, but do your research to ensure you’re receiving a quality product.
5. Stale, out-of-date content.
Customers expect your website to contain the latest products, services, and company information. When it doesn’t have this, they may assume you’re no longer in business or aren’t innovative and ahead of the competition. Your content must address the needs of your customers (or potential customers) and be updated as things change. Updating a blog at least once a week — if not more — can help drive visitors to your website and keep search engines happy. Additionally, avoid putting links to your Facebook or Twitter pages if you only have a small following. People may think your business is too small and not hiring you.
6. Trying to target everyone.
This goes back to knowing your target market; your website will be messy if you try accommodating every visitor you might get. It’s best to figure out your most frequent users and focus on creating the best possible experience for them. If you try to please the masses, you’ll likely not please anyone.
7. Taking the DIY route.
Your website is often your customer’s first experience with your brand. If you don’t have design experience, can you do it justice? Remember, first impressions are everything. Don’t allow your customers to make assumptions about your business because of a poorly designed website. What do you think? What web design mistakes drive you crazy?
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